What readers think of Sweeping Up Glass, plus links to write your own review.

A well written look at life and poverty in the south. the beauty of place and thankfulness for small things make the writing lovely. The story, especially the first part, of how everyday life unfolds for these people and their neighbors and with the pleasure found if ordinary small daily occurrences.

A shift occurs when the mystery unfurls, and the book becomes littered with implausible coincidences that try a realistic reader. One wishes the story could have been told without the mystery, or the mystery written in more believable terms.

Not overwritten, with good character development as well as a descriptive quality of landscape make it a good read.

I enjoyed reading this book and meeting the rural Kentuckians. The novel was going along so well and then it wasn't. The story took off in too many directions, plots and sub-plots, and never came together. I reread the book and still found much of it implausible. Truth may be stranger than fiction, but this is fiction! An implausible ending tacked on to a story of poverty, racism, hardship.

That said, you would not be wasting your time if you read this book. Nuggets of simple truths and wisdom are there. The gritty character of Olivia is memorable.

Carolyn Wall's novel would present itself well at a women's group book club. The discussion could be spirited in exploring the following aspects presented in the novel: love, hate; honesty, deception; good, evil; sanity, insanity; courage, cowardice; benevolence, animosity; murder, mystery, and prejudice. All of this in 319 pages--an ambitious undertaking, indeed.

There are characters to be admired as well as those to be abhorred but nevertheless unforgettable since they could well exist anywhere. The dysfunctional relationship between Olivia and her mother Ida, between Olivia and daughter Pauline are sad and remain unresolved.Then there are characters to be protected--the wolves and their offspring, Will'm, Olivia's grandson, the "coloreds" and Olivia's father Tate.

In the novel, Wall hints at "the mystery"and gives subtle clues; however, by the time the mystery is solved for us, the novel ends--almost too quickly.

Overall, an interesting read with characters to analyze, incidents to marvel at, and hard times to ponder. I recommend this debut novel.

There aren't too many books that can grab my attention right away, but this was one of them. The writing style was great - the author's character portrayals and her descriptive prose made this a very easy read and kept me wanting more. I think this would be a great book club read as it would garner a lively discussion!

I really enjoyed this story! The characters are strongly drawn, and the pacing was satisfying. My only critique? This good story could have been made great with more editing. Choppy transitions interfered with the overall flow. Nevertheless, there really is something compelling about Olivia and her community.

Carolyn Wall has a lot of talent. She is very good with words but needs to hone her story telling skills. She rambled through most of the novel then bombarded the reader with huge happenings at the end.

I found the generational repetition of the detached mother syndrome very interesting and think she could have developed a good novel based on that. She tried to tell too many stories at once.

I was looking for a novel that explored mother daughter relationships. This novel had too many story lines and complex characters that I could not relate to. Yes, it was well written but it was not the story I expected. I would not recommend it to my book group.

There were things I enjoyed about this book. The flavor of the writing and the uniqueness of the characters were very enjoyable. But it didn't quite live up to expectations as the story progressed. There seemed to be holes in the plot. One minor aspect that bothered me was that there was never a date given. I guess some things are assumed, but I like to know in what time period a story is set, especially when it covers several decades. I think this writer will grow - I would read another book from her to see if that has happened.