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Sweeping Up Glass by Carolyn Wall; Jan BOTM
Topic Started: Jan 2 2010, 09:21 PM (1,441 Views)
mary024
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Sweeping Up Glass
by Carolyn Wall

Destined to be a classic, Sweeping Up Glass is a tough and tender novel of love, race, and justice, and a ferocious, unflinching look at the power of family.

Olivia Harker Cross owns a strip of mountain in Pope County, Kentucky, a land where whites and blacks eke out a living in separate, tattered kingdoms and where silver-faced wolves howl in the night. But someone is killing the wolves of Big Foley Mountain–and Olivia is beginning to realize how much of her own bitter history she’s never understood: Her mother’s madness, building toward a fiery crescendo. Her daughter’s flight to California, leaving her to raise Will’m, her beloved grandson. And most of all, her town’s fear, for Olivia has real and dangerous enemies.

Now this proud, lonely woman will face her mother and daughter, her neighbors and the wolf hunters of Big Foley Mountain. And when she does, she’ll ignite a conflict that will embroil an entire community–and change her own life in the most astonishing of ways.

This book is available for purchase in our MBB STORE
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Deb64
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I finished this over the weekend. It's my favorite of the ones I've picked so far. **Spoilers ahead!**

Olivia seems very realistically written to me. I like the setting -- my family comes from Appalachia, so some of it seems very familiar to me. My grandmother used to hang her laundry on a line on the porch in winter, and it would freeze before she'd be done hanging it. That was one of many parts of the the story that remind me of stories my mom has told me about living in the mountains.

I liked Wink, but he just seemed a little too clueless to me (about the hunters and the Cott'ners...he lived in that town for years, why wouldn't they have tried to recruit him? Because he was too close to Olivia, who consorted with African Americans?). And I don't understand why Olivia wouldn't give him a little more time to grieve before running off and sleeping around, and then she rejects him again and again, when he's the one she loves. (of course, I realize you have to have conflict to have a story...). And I was glad Will'm stayed with Olivia. I just wanted her to kick Pauline to the curb -- which she finally did.

Somewhere towards the end of the story, something told me that her dad wasn't in that grave. It was amazing that Olivia took care of her mother for all those years when she treated her so horribly -- but back in that time period help for the mentally ill was nothing like it is today. This one gave me a lot to think about.
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mary024
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Finished last night.

Great choice! I thoroughly enjoyed the book.
More thoughts when I get to the office (still at home getting ready)
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mary024
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Like I said earlier - I really liked this book.

Even without the mystery in the story, the way the author described the setting was great. It truly painted a picture. I would have enjoyed the book just as much if it dealt with Olivia dealing with life with her family and finding a way to put food on the table.

Now the mystery itself - it kept me riveted. And by the end, I was anxious to see what would happen.

ITA with you Luckie. I liked how Olivia was written. And I was even okay with what happened with her and Wing. Prior to her father dying, she never really understood relationships. I saw her self-destruction having more to do with her mother's insanity and her father's death much more than Wing's grief and rejection. She was a naive young girl who knew just as little about dealing with grief as Wing did.

I think Will'm gave her the focus and grounding she needed to finally mature and live for someone other than herself. So later on in the book, I understood her hesitation with Wing's return to her life.

What I didn't like about Wing was he lack of perseverance. He gave up so easily on her and seemed to expect her to be waiting with open arms at the next opportunity. Then he was basically absent in the end. She's losing it in the middle of the street, but he's no where to be seen? Ummm - right! No wonder she suspected him as a Cottoner.

Then his ONLY responsibility was to keep Will'm safe.....so why was he at the homestead when the bus arrived? Where was Wing then? That perplexed me a little.

I always knew something was up with Tate. He was one of the most loved men in town but no one shows up to his service? Even Ida couldnt' have kept the townspeople away if they wanted to pay their respects. I was surprised at Junk's and Love Alice's involvement in the cover-up though. I didn't see that coming.

Am I correct to assume that the car accident was indeed not an accident? I wasn't quite sure in the end.
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mary024
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Oh, and I wanted to add a little more about the ending.
While I was glad with the way things ended, I thought the way it ended was a little too fantastic.

With the church burning, I couldn't really understand why the Cottoners would stop the assault. You've got them trapped - finish the job.

Then to have a bus chase through the country, with just enough time to call in the Feds?
All of that took away from the rustic feel of the story. It was almost too Hollywood for me in those moments.
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Deb64
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I agree -- the whole bus chase was weird -- the Cott'ners had them trapped, what was stopping them from finishing them off? That was a little too convenient for the feds to show up so fast.

No idea about the car accident. I still thought it was an accident...

glad you liked it, Mary.
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burgandykat
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Finished during lunch today. Enjoyable read.

For the most part I liked the characters - especially Olivia. She seemed very real and living within her own skin. Was a little surprised that she took Ida's word about Tate dying and her digging a grave. Very unlike Ida to lift a finger to help anyone other than herself. IA with you - Tate was so well liked and beloved by the community (and Phelps was hated) I couldn't see anyone not showing up for his funeral.

The ending left me a little meh. Felt like the church fire came out of no where, along with the bus chase and all the rest. They had a road block but then didn't chase them up the mountain? Wing said William was with him, but he somehow got home before Olivia got there? The feds who wanted to fly in, managed to get there in half the time? Too many convenient occurrences.

As for the car accident, I think that did happen but Olivia was the only one injured. Tate swerved, missed Phelps and both ended up with nothing more than a few cuts and scratches. Olivia on the other hand (maybe due to her size) truly was injured.
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Vikks14
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I will have you-all know, that I read the January book club book IN January! Woo Hoo!

Just finished last night.

The bad news is, I cannot say that I truly liked this book. I read most of it while flying to Las Vegas from Chicago — a four-hour flight I think. By the time I got to about chapter 20 I was ready to quit this book. Just as I was starting to enjoy the story, she got into the Olivia Wing history and the weird and silly way they broke up and...well, I don't even feel like rehashing the stupidity. I detest stories in which the only thing standing between the main character and personal happiness, or love, or whatever prize is at hand, is stupidity.

The only reason why I continued reading the book is because I was still on the plane, with nothing else to do - and I was not in the least bit tired enough to nap. I was pretty much a captive audience.

I also had a hard time figuring out exactly which time period this was, which is disconcerting when I am trying to picture the story in my head. I think I finally settled on Great Depression era. Am I correct?

Oh, and for some reason, I thought at first this was in Minnesota, til I got a couple chapters in, so the accents and manners of speaking was all screwed up in my head .. I won't blame the author for that, though, ti was my bad.

Now, don't get me wrong. I enjoyed the no-fuss, in-the-moment style of the first-person narrative, and I liked the main characters....well, except for Ida (DIE IDA DIE), Phelps, and sometimes Tate aggravated me with his catering to the crazy whore of a wife he married. But I really liked Wil'm and Olivia's black community friends. I also liked Wing, and I liked Olivia too when she wasn't making me angry.

Yet I did feel as if the book was well written, even though at times the resolutions were a bit too fantastical (I saw Mary post this and I was like YES I was JUST GOING TO POST THAT!) for such a gritty story.

Eh. At least she finally got back with Wing, 20 years too late. I guess.
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Vikks14
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Oh, and I apologize for any inconsistencies, typos etc. I am at a conference/trade show. This is the only time I have to post, and that is limited time. Sorry!
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GWTW1939
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I finally got a chance to pick up this book...halfway through...liking it so far...
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GWTW1939
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Finally got a chance to finish. I really liked this book. It was a good pick. I enjoyed the story & felt it was a very easy, fast read. The ending came up a little quick & abruptly, but I am glad the ending wasn't totally depressing.

Yeah, I was suspicious that Tate never died in the first place. Too many clues there.
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Vikks14
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I think I was the only one not suspicious. I just figured the crazy mother denied him a proper funeral and that's why nobody came. Figured she found a way to bury him before anybody got a chance to when the funeral would be. Olivia was still in grade school at the time, so I didn't expect her to be suspicious either.
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