Sky of Stone: A Memoir (Coalwood)

Another great Homer Hickam Jr book. For me 5 for 5. He is a great author and storyteller. Torpedo Junction, The Dinosaur Hunter, Rocket Boys, Coalwood Way and Sky of Stone all 5 stars... see my reviews. October Sky DVD (based on Rocket Boys) 5 stars. Sky of Stone is a page burner. I read the large print 571 pages in 3 days. No boring parts. Homer is a natural great storyteller of his memories of his late teenage years. The reader wants to read on. Its 1961, Homer's first year of college done ( he's having problems with his grades except English). Homer's dad is having serious trouble at the mine, as a man is killed in a mine explosion and the state and federal investigators are out to hang the responsibility on someone. Homer's dad as the mine superintendent is the target.His mom is temporarily living in a house in Myrtle Beach she bought. She comes back to Coalwood and finds her son "Sonney" has grown from a college boy to a man. Homer comes back to Coalwood for the summer between semesters and damages his dad's car and his father wants Homer to pay for the repairs. So, Homer gets a temporary summer job as a miner in the mines. We see the backbreaking work he does. More new people in his life introduced, some from his first two books in the Coalwood series. There is a good mystery in this true life story. Try to find out how the "secret man" broke his wrist and how and why a man was killed in the mine explosion. Where did the fox go? We she Homer's mom's pet fox and "chipper" the squirrel biting everyone, and Homer's lovable 2 dogs and cats. Also his crush on a junior mining engineer named Rita, an older woman. Also here comes the retired big "Captain" telling the reader Coalwood's secrets. The reader develops deep empathy with the true people in this book. That's enough,I won't ruin this great true story for you. Also make sure you read the great Epilogue where Homer tells about his Army officer time, diving instructor time, his working in NASA on various projects,like the shuttle, Skylab,underwater training and helping train astronauts. Much much more. This is a heartwarming book of an 18 year old going from college boy to hard working, train rail driving, miner man. The reader will be amazed of the incredible full, rich true life of Homer Hickam Jr., family and friends had. Coalwood changes but will remain. A great childhood 18 year olds memoirs and a great Epilogue of Homer's later years and fascinating life. 5 stars and recommended! Now starting to read The Keepers Son, first book in another series by the great author Homer Hickam Jr.

I just finished a delightful memoir -- Sky of Stone, by Homer Hickham Jr. -- that was recommended to me by one of the birders on a recent birding trip to Nebraska. Hickham also wrote Rocket Boys, a memoir that was made into the delightful movie October Sky. Sky of Stone was deeply meaningful to me because I spent twenty-six years as a federal government lawyer representing the Mine Safety and Health Administration in federal court. Sky of Stone recounts the summer when the author, an undergraduate at Virginia Polytechnic institute, returned to Coalwood, West Virginia, to earn tuition money laying track in the mine operated by Olga Coal Company, and to support his father, the mine superintendent, during the investigation of a fatal methane explosion in the mine. The memoir is a coming-of-age story: the author struggles to come to terms with his past, his future, his family, his hometown, the world of mining, and the disorienting attractions of a young mining engineer who fights to become the first female to enter the mine. The memoir is also a detective story: the author struggles to uncover why the powers-that-be are conspiring to pin the blame for the fatality on his father, and why in fact his father allowed a miner to enter the mine alone after a storm cut off power to the ventilation fans. Sky of Stone is especially delightful in depicting the idiosyncrasies of mountain folk and mining folk -- religiosity and ribaldry, hard work and hard play, humble self-deprecation and prickly pride, genteelness and abrasiveness, love of the mine and fear of the mine, devotion to community and insistence on rugged individualism, love of sentiment and insistence on logic, a sense of mission and a sense of skepticism, openness and secretiveness, understatement and hyperbole, high purpose and low humor -- which I encountered indirectly through the MSHA cases I worked on and directly in the MSHA colleagues I worked with. Sky of Stone reminds me of another memoir: Colored People, Henry Louis Gates' gorgeous depiction of growing up in Piedmont, West Virginia, during the era of segregation.

Hickam's books are charming. I recommend this as the last in the trilogy.

You’ll laugh heartily and you’ll cry real tears while reading this very real, very touching and very well-written book. It’s a coming of age story that includes the typical father-son struggles. Then, the father-son dynamic changes in an unexpected way and the son comes to the aid of the tough unwieldy father…and the son finds himself grownup. There is so much more, but why give it away. Suffice it to say Sonny’s story includes the hardest work he’d ever done, an unrequited love and changing relationships with his brother and his mother. And then there are the dogs, Dandy and Poteet.

I moved to the beautiful state of WV 5 years ago, and and fell in love with a lifestyle and people, that are unique. There is a sense of community that I've never witnessed, having lived in 4 states and serving in the Air Force. I was "introduced" to Homer Hickam, in the movie, "October Sky"; as an avid reader, I had to read, "Rocket Boys". I've found Mr. Hickam to be an accomplished writer, as well as an accomplished engineer. So naturally, I had to read his other novels about his life in WV. As most people who aren't born and raised in WV, I always thought that the coal miners of WV, bore an awful burden. For some odd reason, it never dawned on me that coal miners are not only proud, but they also love their CHOSEN careers. Having been inundated with images of a time when miners "owed their souls to the company store", I expected to meet downtrodden miners. Of course, this all changed long before I was born. Mr. Hickam's autobiographical novel, was obviously cathartic for him, as he uses humor and grace, to portray his path from hating the mine that his father loved so much, to understanding the special love and pride that the WV miners take in their work, and in this, understanding his father. Now, I understand the source of this very special sense of community that I've found in my chosen home. Thank you Mr. Hickam; you are one of my hero's.

Homer Hickam has become my favorite author. This third book in the Coalwood Series has me wanting to read everything this author has ever written. I have since purchased more of his works. This is a tale of many relationships: family, friendships, neighbors, community, young love and even the love between a family and their beloved pets. It's definitely a page turner until the very end. I have laughed, cried and felt my heart pounding as I read so fast and turned page after page with excitement, feeling as if I, too, belonged inside the well written pages of this beautifully told story. As an avid reader, I have read countless books throughout the years and there was one particular sentence in this novel, toward the end of the book, that will resound in my heart and mind forever, like no other book I have ever read. It moved me to the core. I earnestly hope that Homer Hickam continues touching our lives with his magnificent writings.

I think this is a great book and movie or TV material. Interesting parents and local history. The boy grows up during the summer. My Father is from southern W. VA and I also am an Eng and worked on the space program. These books prove a good set of parents and town will produce good results. The town has a degree of socialism where people work together for the good of all rather than the greedy all for self destructive Neoliberalism and destruction of the middle class we have today. I can't help the Captain would make a good book by itself. Hard or impossible to research but it would be interesting. I took summers Sharples, Welch, and logan and lived and went to Marshal for a while. Hard work is the lesson I learned and how little you really need.

There are authors who make you say to yourself "this person writes wonderfully, but I could never write like this...." Then there are authors that make you think exactly the opposite. "Wow, I can be a writer - it would be a snap to write like this." Homer Hickam is one of those latter authors. You read his stuff and you say "hey, I could do this...." Of course, 10 minutes after trying to imitate his writing style you would realize your folly. Being a pure, simple, emotional, relevant, romantic, respectful storyteller is, alas, not as easy as Hickam makes it seem. But who cares. The joy in Hickam's stories is their simplicity, their commonality, and their truthful resonance with us all. Frankly, I thought nothing could top Rocket Boys and the first-time wonder of discovering Hickam. And since Sky of Stone re-visits the Coalwood scene I figured it to be a Rocket Boys rehash. Not so. Not at all. In fact if this had been Hickam's first book it would have been a winner just like Rocket Boys. So if you're a Hickam fan, dig in, you're going to love this book on the drama of Sonny's life in the summer after his freshman year in college. And if you're new to Hickam, plunge ahead and join the club. If Norman Rockwell paintings were books, they would have been written by Homer Hickam.

Bought for a family member who has the first book and wanted the others

Ein super Buch, toll geschrieben und man ist schnell in der Biografie drin

It is not often one races to finish a book. At the same time trying to limit the time I spent reading so as not to reach the end. I will be reading this and the other 2 again and again. I really want to visit Coalwood. Most of my read's are war or aviation, (I've read "the country girls",), so not a complete nerd. Usually can't be asked to leave a review, so I was well impressed. Ops, bit of Essex showing through.

Great read but way too much detail and a story which all comes together to a perfect ending. Too perfect. Don't get me wrong, it's a great read, it's just that I personally think there's more fiction than fact in here. Still recommend it as a good tale though.