Rating: 
Summary: I love Christmas Stories!
Review: I love Christmas stories and this is one of the best ever written. It is the only Christmas book that has made me truly appreciate the miracles that can only happen at Christmas. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Relentlessly heartbreaking...
Review: This book is not about rockets. But then, neither was Rocket Boys, when you think about it. Rockets happen to be the glue that held the vignettes in the first story together, but it's so much more than that. It is a memoir in the truest sense of the word, getting you into Sonny's skin and letting you see and feel the world, in all its coldness and warmth, through his eyes.This book is even more a series of vignettes than the first one, because some of the stories seem to stand almost on their own, ala James Herriot. But it is a deeper, more moving and more relentlessly heartbreaking read than Rocket Boys, because Sonny is experiencing some really tough times. Anyone who has a long-dead father they are still trying to please (I don't, so can't empathize as much) will be crying as they read this book. But I say this in a good way. The same warmth is still there, and even when it is not, when he feels cold toward the world or misses an opportunity, Sonny beats himself over the head, so you don't have to. All of Homer's books are too good to miss, and this one is no exception.
Rating:
Summary: Homer Hickam at his best...
Review: The book The Coalwood Way by Homer Hickam is an excellent read. Out of a five scale rating, I give it a five. It was truly, an incredible book. Memoirs are very hard pieces to write and Homer Hickam did an outstanding way of helping the reader know what it was like growing up in a town during the 1950's and 1960's. Another reason a rated this book a five out of five was that he has first-rate description. He describes incidents that happened over forty years ago almost flawlessly. "A serious little rocket (Auk XXII-E), it began its journey with a mighty spout of flame and turmoil and its shock wave rattled out wooden blockhouse as it climbed." The Book starts out in the fall of 1959 when Homer and the Big Creek Missile Academy (BCMA) launch the Auk XXII-E. Homer Hickam talks about a variety of subjects in this book. He talks about the hazards of 11 East, his friendly pet squirrel Chipper, and obstacles they had to overcome with improving their rocket design. And last reason I rate this book five out of five is because it has a message within. The book, for me, told me that you can achieve anything if you put your mind to it. Homer Hickam co-founded the BCMA with a few friends just wanting to have some fun with rockets. And with his gain in knowledge of rocketry, and payload, he wound up working for NASA. If that isn't an inspirational story, what is? In conclusion, I recommend this book to any Homer Hickam fan or even a person who has never even heard of him before. This is truly, an unforgettable read.
Rating:
Summary: Stuck in Time!!!!!
Review: I have lived in West Virginia all my life. I know how hard life is, to find a job and raise a family. I also know how proud most West Virginia's are of the state. I have traveled all over this great nation, and I can honestly say, West Virginia is one of the most beautiful states in the Union. I have also visited Coalwood on several occasions. The people are great, they are willing to tell there story. Most of the housing that existed when Homer was growing up still exist and people still live in them. Homer boyhood home still sits on the corner in the center of what is know as Coalwood. There are no new houses in the town. I do hope that some day the people of Coalwood will be able to expand the town and have a greater tourism draw. If you ever get a chance to visit the town, stop by the only gas station/store and sign the visitors book and become a part of history.
Rating:
Summary: A story of identity....
Review: This coming of age tale is full of wisdom and insight,
especially about one's identity. Though Homer Hickham
went on to become successful as a rocket scientist, what
is most interesting and important about this story is his
awareness of his roots, gritty and trying as they sometimes
were for him, a gifted boy growing up in a poor coalmining
town. I always love to read about real people - the characters in this book are endearing and he's a very good
writer. I would say it's a classic, it will last, and I think it ought to be given to young people to read. It would make a good Christmas or birthday gift for a teenager.
Rating:
Summary: A great read!
Review: Homer Hickam's October Sky was one of the best books that I have read. Now, Hickum returns to Coalwood to detail his life further in the Coalwood way. Set during and slightly after October Sky, Homer and his friends have to struggle to have their normal lives as well as their rocket work. Homer disapoints his mother, who lost her pet squirrel due to his carelessness and refuses to forgive him. Homer's social life is failing and so is the mine that his father works at. Everything seems to fall apart.
The one thing that seems to bind the town together is the Christmas pagent that is coming up, and the one that his mother insists on doing alone, without any help.
It was hard to put this book down. I had to find out what would happen between Homer and his friends and family, and the book just flew by. It is a very good emotional piece of work and well written.
Rating: 
Summary: Down home again in Appalachia with Homer
Review: Several years ago, ex-NASA engineer Homer Hickam published the first volume of his memoirs, ROCKET BOYS, which was subsequently made into the hit film OCTOBER SKY. In these, the author remembers growing up in the West Virginia coal town of Coalwood in the late 1950s. From the moment he saw the first Soviet Sputnik traverse the night sky in 1957, Homer became obsessed with space, rockets and his hero, Werner von Braun. Along with several high school chums, Hickam built and, after some initial failures, launched several dozen rockets. As high school seniors, the group won a national science fair for their achievements in rocketry. In THE COALWOOD WAY, Homer expands on that period during his final high school year when he was steadily improving the design and performance of his missiles, but before he won the national competition that was the culminating triumph of his first book. This second volume of memoirs focuses less on rocketry than the other challenges Hickam faced in his hometown and personal life. His father, the mine superintendent, is a stern workaholic who demonstrates little overt love for his second son (while being more lavish with his firstborn, Jim). His mother, Elsie, is increasingly disenchanted with her marriage and life in Coalwood, and wants to move to Florida to sell real estate. Miners are being laid off by the parent company, an Ohio steel manufacturer. Families are going hungry. There's talk of a strike. Homer is driven to get all A's in school to be able to escape his environment, go to college, and ultimately work at Cape Canaveral. And, of course, there's the distraction of girls, and deciding whom to take to the Christmas Formal. After all, Melba June did sidle up close and say in a throaty voice, "I just love your rockets." That THE COALWOOD WAY is less inspiring then its predecessor, and that Hollywood is unlikely to consider it material for the silver screen, shouldn't detract from the fact that it's a poignant coming-of-age story with an attractive hero. Delightfully, the author can be occasionally humorous in a homespun sort of way, as when he observes of preachers: "Did failure to volunteer information count as a lie? I didn't think it did though I wouldn't have wanted to put that question to a preacher. It was my experience that preachers could get snagged on the details and miss the big picture entirely." Perhaps my favorite character in the whole book is Elsie. As Moms should be, she seems eternally wise. She doesn't hesitate to occasionally tweak her husband's stiff-necked obstinacy, and there are no shenanigans that Homer is getting into, or considering, that she doesn't know of. It is she I most look forward to reading about in Homer's next volume of memories, SKY OF STONE.
Rating:
Summary: Exhilarating, Touching, and Heartbreaking
Review: I picked up "The Coalwood Way" because I enjoyed "The Rocket Boys" so much, and I was not disappointed. This book explores the town of Coalwood, its people, and the mining operation in much more detail. Simply put, I loved this book. If you liked "The Rocket Boys", you will love this book. It is a well-written, emotional, and sentimental look at Homer Hickam's home town through the eyes of a 17 year old boy with his whole life ahead of him, anxious to go out in the world, but growing to realize that Coalwood will be a part of him forever. Read it!
Rating:
Summary: Very simply, possibly the best Christmas story ever
Review: This book is the story of a Christmas miracle unlike any you've ever read. Coalwood in a time of snow and crisis, where Sonny is afflicted with a strange sadness, Homer (Senior) is fighting against a terrible enemy in the mine, the deer are starving, Mrs. Hickam is cut off from her friends and neighbors, a poor girl only wants to be a "Coalwood girl" and then... a miracle, a truly wonderful miracle all the more miraculous in that it is true. I shant spoil it except to say that I had tears streaming down my cheeks when the deer came out of the mountains during the Christmas Pageant. Why this isn't an annual television Christmas special my goodness I really don't know. Television is missing something special here - I hope maybe next year we'll see it.
Rating:
Summary: Highly enjoyable
Review: I notice there's quite a number of other favorable reviews. I'll just add that I enjoyed this book as much as any I've read in the past year. The term 'modern classic' is thrown around quite often these days, but this book may very well be one.
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