Sky of Stone (Nova Audio Books)

Rating:
Summary: Well done, but it's not October Sky
Review: I enjoyed this insight into Homer Hickam as a young college-age man and his maturation, but enjoyed October Sky so much more. This tale seemed forced, with an underlying mystery that Homer just happens to help solve along the way. It's good, but of the two, I'd take October Sky.

Rating:
Summary: Wish I could make it ten stars!!!!
Review: It's tempting to cast Homer Hickam as a rags-to-riches, self-made man. The son of a coal mine supervisor, he was raised in a rural West Virginia town with limited access to public education's most up-to-date resources. When, as a child, he experimented with designing and launching rockets (well before man had walked on the moon), he went up against the traditions of a community that had little use for original behavior. Inauspicious beginnings perhaps, but as an adult, Homer Hickam became an engineer for NASA and a best-selling writer.

So it would have been easy for him to paint himself as an undiscovered diamond in an unforgiving coal town. But that's not the tenor of Sky of Stone, in which Hickam re-creates the events of a long-ago summer spent in his hometown of Coalwood following his freshman year in college.

Sky of Stone is a follow-up to Hickam's two previous memoirs, Rocket Boys (which was made into the movie October Sky) and The Coalwood Way. In all three books, the author commemorates his hometown and its citizens with loving admiration. Homer's parents, though imperfect, are remembered for their humor, dedication and ingenuity. The author gives them full credit for insisting that he go to college and pursue his dreams.

More surprisingly, Hickam portrays Coalwood not as a soul- and lung-destroying wasteland, but as the embodiment of the American dream. Coalwood's fine schools, decent houses and well-nourished families are sustained by the production of coal. That's what the town's mining families believed, and Hickam honors their strong sense of self-determination.

The dark side to the coal industry -- black lung, union quarrels, unequal opportunity for women -- rears its head in Hickam's reminiscences, as they did in Coalwood in 1961. But they are not the subject of Sky of Stone. Hickam focuses on three young people -- Bobby Likens, Rita Walicki and himself -- for whom Coalwood's resistance to change acted as a bracing stimulant, calling forth all of the trio's shrewdness and creativity. They were made by Coalwood, not in spite of it.

The book's various plot strands -- the estrangement of Hickam's parents; the charges brought against his father involving the death of a mining foreman -- occasionally seem unconnected. But the author brings them all together in a final courtroom drama. Hickam's skill with plot, his wit and his capacity for summing up a character in a couple of good quotes all make Sky of Stone an admirable entry in the chronicles of his life.

Rating:
Summary: I'm sure Mr Hickam was a great scientist, but....
Review: just think how many more wonderful literary masterpieces we would have today if he'd focused on writing instead!

I picked this book up at the library after I happened upon some good reviews here. I must say, I am very much impressed with Homer Hickam. The writing is fluid and very well developed. The story is wholesome and reminiscent of simpler times, and the plot is superb.

I am definitely going to be reading more of Mr. Hickam's works, which, if you notice, all receive 4-5 stars here. America, I think the writing of Homer Hickam will continue to do us proud!

Rating:
Summary: I'm sure Mr Hickam was a great scientist, but....
Review: just think how many more wonderful literary masterpieces we would have today if he'd focused on writing instead!

I picked this book up at the library after I happened upon some good reviews here. I must say, I am very much impressed with Homer Hickam. The writing is fluid and very well developed. The story is wholesome and reminiscent of simpler times, and the plot is superb.

I am definitely going to be reading more of Mr. Hickam's works, which, if you notice, all receive 4-5 stars here. America, I think the writing of Homer Hickam will continue to do us proud!

Rating:
Summary: further poignant memories from Homer Hickam
Review: Like his previous books, "Rocket Books" and "The Coalwood Way," Homer Hickam's new memoir will touch your heart. The book is a kind of coming-of-age story when 18 year old Homer, now a college student at VPI (which has become Virginia Tech today), returns to a Coalwood summer spent working underground. The town has secrets which are harder to mine than the coal. "Coalwood business" remains outside the knowledge of Homer, in earlier years because of his age, now because of his outsider status, as a college student and one bound for a life away from the hills of West Virginia.

Slowly Homer chips away at the secrets, and at the truth of what happened one night when a fierce storm took out the electricity, stopped the ventilation in the mines, and caused a deadly buildup of methane gas.

Throughout the book, Hickam writes with a tender yet tough, clear-eyed clarity, of himself on the brink of manhood, and of many other residents of Coalwood, and most especially, of his parents. His father is dedicated to the mine and to the community, and his mother, despite her love for his father, yearns for a life far away from Coalwood. Homer, caught in the middle, is of an age to strike out for himself. But "Coalwood business" keeps his home for a summer of change and discovery. The old truths endure, and fidelity, compassion, friendship, honesty, and faith will prevail.

"Sky of Stone" is written with warmth and humor. The town of Coalwood as it was in l961 will come alive, and engage and entertain the reader. Highly recommended!

Rating:
Summary: A great legal mystery story on top of everything else
Review: Simply stated, this is one of the best books I have ever read. Filled with wisdom on every page, it is still a real page-turner. If you are searching for a book that will make you not want to put it down until you're done, this is the book for you. Homer does not write about things. He writes about people, people you will really care about. After reading this one, I so much want to visit Coalwood, just to go there and breathe the air and talk to its people. This is a love story, an adventure story, and a great detective and mystery story. Homer Hickam is the John Steinbeck (IMHO) of this age.

Rating:
Summary: Sky of Stone has nothing to do with space and rockets
Review: This book takes you back to the 50's/60's when Homer built his rockets and his struggles with his somewhat disfuctional family. It will enspire you even now. In the scheme of things you should read "Coalwood Way" first since that will keep Homer's life in sequence. I'm about Homer's age and thoroughly enjoyed all three boks,Rocket boys, coalwood ways & sky of stone. I promise, you'll enjoy Mr. Hickam's works if you like space and rockts!!!

Rating:
Summary: Coalwood's swan song
Review: Through Homer Hickam's marvelous memoirs, readers have been transported to Coalwood, West Virginia, of the late 1950s - first in ROCKET BOYS (made into the film OCTOBER SKY), then THE COALWOOD WAY, and now SKY OF STONE.

It's the summer of 1961. After his freshman year at Virginia Polytechnic Institute, Homer wants to join his mother at her new house in Myrtle Beach, a coastal resort in South Carolina. But there's been a fatal accident back in the mine at Coalwood, and Homer's Dad, the mine superintendent, is under investigation by state and federal agencies. So, Mom tells Homer to go back home and keep his Dad company. And, as readers of the series know, Elsie Hickam is not one to trifle with.

SKY OF STONE is, I think, certainly superior to THE COALWOOD WAY, and perhaps even to ROCKET BOYS. It's in this third volume that Homer emerges from adolescence. He comes to grips with his parents' increasing estrangement from each other, his father's emotional distance, the loss of beloved pets, and the primacy of his older brother in his father's affections. Then there's Homer's first serious crush, the object being Rita, a junior mining engineer several years his senior. Finally, to pay off damage done to his father's Buick, Homer defies both parents, joins the United Mine Workers of America, moves out of the family home, and goes to work in the coal mine as a summer job. (SKY OF STONE refers to the ceiling of solid rock over the mine's tunnels.)

Homer's semi-dysfunctional family remains a source of reader sympathy. Over one weekend, young Hickam resides with the Likens family, the menfolk of which are going to improve their guest's softball skills. (Homer's been drafted by the union team that will play management on the Fourth of July.) At breakfast, Homer notices:

"(Mrs. Likens) smiled lovingly at her husband, and I thought again how much I envied her family. They all just seemed to like each other." The poignancy of this observation is heartbreaking.

Hickam self-deprecating humor makes him an eminently likable protagonist. He sets out to that July 4th showdown on the baseball diamond with the thought:

"... I had, in fact, only two hopes: one, that I wouldn't hit myself with the bat, and the other, that nobody would hit a ball in my direction." But, Homer rises to the occasion, much to the satisfaction of the reader.

Since, in the book's epilogue, Homer's narrative summarizes his life since that maturing summer of '61, I assume that SKY OF STONE is to be the last in the Coalwood series, which has been a genuine piece of true-life Americana. I shall miss it.

According to the author, Coalwood's mine has long since shut down, and the town itself barely exists as a place on the map anymore. However, there's a museum there dedicated to the town's mining heritage and the exploits of the Rocket Boys. Homer's books leave me wanting to travel across country to visit. Honor is due.

Rating:
Summary: A budding Hickamite
Review: To start, if you haven't read Rocket Boys, read it first. I love Sky of Stone but can't imagine enjoying it near as much without the background established in Rocket Boys. As far Sky of Stone goes, it is a fantastic book, BUT much different that Rocket Boys. The tone is much darker and mysterious. It is NOT another light-hearted nostalgic look at life in the 50s although parts do lend itself to that. The first half of the book is somewhat slow, but the second half is very quick and is GREAT!

Rating:
Summary: Sonny Does It Again!
Review: Well, here I am again, writing another bleary-eyed rave review for one of Homer Hickam's fantastic books that I could not put down till the wee hours of the morning! This one almost surpasses the wonder I felt when I read ROCKET BOYS-- almost, but not quite--- hence four stars, instead of five! SKY OF STONE has different excellent qualities going for it--- one of which is a mystery, one that is well-constructed so that even the most avid mystery reader does not know what the real truth is until the very last moment. That is what kept me up all night-- I wanted to see how it ended! I love that the characters of Coalwood are once again painted against that familiar tapestry that was "ROCKET BOYS"--- I felt myself drawn into that place I have physically driven through so many times in my life (living only 20 minutes away from Coalwood), but only know personally through Sonny's books. I missed the Rocket Boys in this one, those comrades who shared so much in ROCKET BOYS and THE COALWOOD WAY. But the characters that were involved in the telling of this story had so many wonderful aspects to them that I found myself enthralled by their interactions with Sonny. Floretta was my favorite. I also loved how Elsie Hickam was the puppetmaster for this book, even though she was in her beloved Myrtle Beach for most of the book--- GIRL POWER!!! I cannot say enough about this book or the two that precede it, so I will just say this (in an unfair take on the film "Field of Dreams"), "Sonny Hickam, write them, and I will come!" Another well-written, awesome tale of life in the county I, too, call home!