By Homer Hickam
Homer Hickam gained the compliment of critics and the devotion of readers together with his first memoirs set within the hardscrabble mining city of Coalwood, West Virginia. The long island Times topped his first ebook, the number 1 nationwide bestseller October Sky, “an eloquent evocation ... a completely fascinating memoir.” And People referred to as The Coalwood Way, Hickam’s follow-up to October Sky, “a heartwarmer ... actually attractive and haunting.”
Now Homer Hickam maintains his awesome tale with Sky of Stone, miraculous us with beautiful storytelling as he is taking us again to that impressive small city we first got here to grasp and love in October Sky.
In the summer time of ‘61, Homer “Sonny” Hickam, a 12 months of school at the back of him, used to be dreaming of sandy seashores and rocket ships. yet earlier than Sonny may well achieve the beach fixer-upper the place his mom was once spending the summer season, a cellphone name sends him again to where he idea he had escaped, the gritty coal-mining city of Coalwood, West Virginia. There, Sonny’s father, the mine’s superintendent, has been accused of negligence in a man’s death—and the townspeople are in clash over the way forward for the town.
Sonny’s mom, Elsie, has commanded her son to spend the summer season in Coalwood to aid his father. yet inside of hours, Sonny realizes issues: His father, constantly cool and far away along with his moment son, doesn’t wish him there ... and his mom and dad’ marriage has all started to resolve. For Sonny, so starts off a summer season of discovery—of love, betrayal, and such a lot of all, of a brooding secret that threatens to wreck his father and his city.
Cut off from his university cash by means of his father, Sonny unearths himself doing the incredible: taking a task as a “track-laying man,” the hardest within the mine. relocating out to reside one of the miners, Sonny is quickly dazzled through a stunning older girl who desires to be the mine’s first girl engineer.
And because the days of summer time develop shorter, Sonny unearths himself altering in awesome methods, taking the 1st genuine steps towards maturity. yet it’s a trip he could make purely by means of peering into the mysterious center of Coalwood itself, and so much of all, by means of unraveling the tale of a man’s dying and a father’s secret.
In Sky of Stone, Homer Hickam seems down the corridors of his earlier with love, humor, and forgiveness, brilliantly evoking a close-knit neighborhood the place we all know every thing approximately every one other’s lives—except the issues that topic such a lot. Sky of Stone is a memoir that reads like a unique, captivating us with wealthy language, narrative force, and sheer storytelling genius.
Read Online or Download Sky of Stone: A Memoir PDF
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Extra info for Sky of Stone: A Memoir
Document Lassiter observed to him. It’s in his document. ” “I’ve visible it and it'll be put on record,” Mr. Fuller acknowledged. “Unfortunately, the nice health professional is attending a kingdom conference of mine corporation physicians. What else did you discover? ” Mr. Nordman shrugged. “I patted Tuck down, simply to be certain he wasn’t wearing any fits or a cigarette lighter or something. i wished so as to testify that it used to be certainly the motor—the electric tram, that is—that supplied the spark that trigger the methane. All i discovered was once his pockets in his hip pocket, his tag in his entrance pocket, and his glasses in his blouse pocket. His glasses have been damaged, no longer spectacular contemplating the influence of the blast. ” “Did you observe anything? ” “No, sir. ” Mr. Fuller nodded. “Mr. Nordman, you depend upon your foremen and supervisors to guarantee that secure stipulations exist during the mine, is that right? ” “Yes, sir. We carry weekly security conferences with all our foremen. ” Mr. Fuller consulted his computer back. “Is it now not real that on September 12, 1958, you confirmed up in Homer Hickam’s place of work to short the foremen and he canceled that assembly? ” Mr. Nordman appeared startled. He swept his eyes over the viewers, rested them in short on Mr. Bundini, then cleared his throat. “I’m now not sure of the date yet I do keep in mind having one among my conferences canceled, sure, sir. ” “And have been you disenchanted? ” “Upset? I wouldn’t say i used to be disenchanted, yet I did recommend to Homer that he shouldn’t cancel a foreman safeguard assembly with out strong reason. ” “And what did he say? ” Mr. Nordman pursed his lips. “Well . . . ” A sinking feeling crept over me. Mr. Fuller, I suspected, had ultimately gotten to the place he desired to move. My father used to be at risk. “What did he say, invoice? ” Mr. Nordman relented in a burst. “He acknowledged that he couldn’t spare his foremen for a damn-fool security assembly that simply repeated what everyone knew, besides. ” Then he extra, “Homer apologized to me tomorrow. ” “Did he? ” “Yes, sir, he did. ” “And did he say why he canceled the security assembly? ” “He didn’t need to. I knew already. the entire sections have been down for one cause or one other and Homer felt his foremen weren’t doing their jobs. He sought after them to get to paintings. ” “Did you're thinking that was once cause sufficient to cancel a security assembly? ” “No, sir, I didn’t, and that i informed Homer that. I held one other assembly per week later, this one on timbering criteria and common housework of the gob. I bring it to mind in particular simply because these have been the themes Homer requested me to educate. ” “So he suggestion he should still select the themes of your defense conferences? ” “In this example, certain. It used to be timbering and home tasks that it seems that had brought on lots of the sections to be down. ” Mr. Fuller went again to his laptop. I didn’t be aware of the place he was once going with the testimony, yet i may feel it was once headed precisely the place he sought after it to head. His subsequent query proven it. “So wouldn't it be reasonable to assert that Homer Hickam’s first precedence within the mine is construction of tonnage with defense moment? Is that what you’re telling us, sir?