Best Selling Books by Homer Hickam

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “nostalgic and entertaining memoir” (People) about a group of young men who dreamed of launching rockets into outer space—the inspiration for the film October Sky “A message of hope in an age of cynicism. . . . Perhaps we all have something to learn from a half-dozen boys who dared to reject all limitations . . . and resolved to send dreams roaring to the sky.”—The San Diego Union-Tribune It was 1957, the year Sputnik raced across the Appalachian sky, and the small town of Coalwood, West Virginia, was slowly dying. Faced with an uncertain future, Homer Hickam nurtured a dream: to send rockets into outer space. The introspective son of the mine’s superintendent and a mother determined to get him out of Coalwood forever, Homer fell in with a group of misfits who learned not only how to turn scraps of metal into sophisticated rockets but how to sustain their hope in a town that swallowed its men alive. As the boys began to light up the tarry skies with their flaming projectiles and dreams of glory, Coalwood, and the Hickams, would never be the same. With the grace of a natural storyteller, NASA engineer Homer Hickam paints a warm, vivid portrait of the harsh West Virginia mining town of his youth, evoking a time of innocence and promise, when anything was possible. Lush and lyrical, Rocket Boys is a uniquely American memoir: A powerful, luminous story of coming of age at the end of the 1950s, of a mother’s love and a father’s fears, and of growing up and getting out.

The shuttle is hijacked. Now the countdown to adventure begins.... In his #1 New York Times bestselling memoir, October Sky, real-life NASA engineer Homer Hickam captured the excitement of America''s first space ventures. Now, in this no-holds-barred joyride of a thriller, he straps us into the cockpit of the space shuttle Columbia as a renegade rocket man hijacks the shuttle--and blasts off on a Mach-speed chase into space.... Jack Medaris is a man haunted by his past and driven by a dream: He''s risking everything to "borrow" the Columbia--and pilot it to the moon. He didn''t plan on an unexpected passenger, beautiful celebrity daredevil and scientist Penny High Eagle. To Penny, this hijacking will test every bit of her mettle as an adventurer--and as a woman. To Jack, the mission is a personal quest--to return to the moon and bring back what America left behind, something so explosive, it could change the future of the world. Now, as the U.S. government scrambles to the chase, and as deadly forces are deployed from earth to stop them, a man and a woman find their fates inextricably entwined. And in the savage emptiness of deep space, their only hope is to join forces to reach the lunar surface. Then comes the hard part. Getting home alive.

From the #1 bestselling author of October Sky comes this rich, unforgettable tale. With the same dazzling storytelling that distinguished his first memoir, Homer Hickam takes us deeper into the soul of his West Virginia hometown at a moment when its unique way of life is buffeted by forces of time and change. It is fall 1959. Homer “Sonny” Hickam and his fellow Rocket Boys are in their senior year at Big Creek High, and the town of Coalwood finds itself at a painful crossroads. The strains can be felt within the Hickam home, where Homer Sr. struggles to save the mine, and his wife, Elsie, is feeling increasingly isolated from both her family and the townspeople. Sonny, despite a blossoming relationship with a local girl, finds his own mood darkened by an unexplainable sadness. Then, with the holidays approaching, trouble at the mine and the arrival of a beautiful young outsider bring unexpected changes in both the Hickam family and the town of Coalwood ... as this luminous memoir moves toward its poignant conclusion.

Can their love survive the difference in their circumstances? Song Hawkins is a beautiful, tough, but lonely New York City businesswoman who thinks she''s met the man of her dreams in Cable Jordan, the superintendent of a West Virginia coal mine. But soon after they impulsively marry, Song realizes they''re in big trouble. She can''t imagine life outside of New York, and Cable has no intention of leaving his beloved town of Highcoal. Song''s visit to the little mining community only makes things worse. It looks like the marriage is over. But in a shocking turn of events, Song realizes it''s up to her to put on the red helmet of the new coal miner and descend into the deep darkness. There she faces her greatest challenge with choices and courage that will forever impact the life of Cable and the entire town. Sweet and thoughtful contemporary read Stand-alone novel Book length: 86,000 words Includes discussion questions for book clubs

Homer Hickam won the praise of critics and the devotion of readers with his first two memoirs set in the hardscrabble mining town of Coalwood, West Virginia. The New York Times crowned his first book, the #1 national bestseller October Sky, “an eloquent evocation ... a thoroughly charming memoir.” And People called The Coalwood Way, Hickam’s follow-up to October Sky, “a heartwarmer ... truly beautiful and haunting.” Now Homer Hickam continues his extraordinary story with Sky of Stone, dazzling us with exquisite storytelling as he takes us back to that remarkable small town we first came to know and love in October Sky. In the summer of ‘61, Homer “Sonny” Hickam, a year of college behind him, was dreaming of sandy beaches and rocket ships. But before Sonny could reach the seaside fixer-upper where his mother was spending the summer, a telephone call sends him back to the place he thought he had escaped, the gritty coal-mining town 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 conflict over the future of the town. Sonny’s mother, Elsie, has commanded her son to spend the summer in Coalwood to support his father. But within hours, Sonny realizes two things: His father, always cool and distant with his second son, doesn’t want him there ... and his parents’ marriage has begun to unravel. For Sonny, so begins a summer of discovery—of love, betrayal, and most of all, of a brooding mystery that threatens to destroy his father and his town. Cut off from his college funds by his father, Sonny finds himself doing the unimaginable: taking a job as a “track-laying man,” the toughest in the mine. Moving out to live among the miners, Sonny is soon dazzled by a beautiful older woman who wants to be the mine’s first female engineer. And as the days of summer grow shorter, Sonny finds himself changing in surprising ways, taking the first real steps toward adulthood. But it’s a journey he can make only by peering into the mysterious heart of Coalwood itself, and most of all, by unraveling the story of a man’s death and a father’s secret. In Sky of Stone, Homer Hickam looks down the corridors of his past with love, humor, and forgiveness, brilliantly evoking a close-knit community where everyone knows everything about each other’s lives—except the things that matter most. Sky of Stone is a memoir that reads like a novel, mesmerizing us with rich language, narrative drive, and sheer storytelling genius.

A Coast Guard commander faces Nazi aggression in American waters in this "beautifully written and nerve-wrackingly suspenseful" novel of WWII (Nelson DeMille). North Carolina, 1941. Among the wind-swept Outer Banks, Killakeet Island is home to a peaceful community of fishermen, clam stompers, oyster rakers, and a few lonely Coast Guard sailors. Dominating the tiny island landscape is the majestic Killakeet Lighthouse, which has been overseen by the Thurlow family for generations. But now Josh Thurlow, the Keeper''s son, has chosen another path . . . Seventeen years ago, Josh lost his younger brother at sea. Still wracked with guilt, he searches relentlessly for him as commander of a Coast Guard patrol boat. But Josh''s obsession with the past is complicated by the arrival of a beautiful stranger—and a foreign enemy. In Killakeet to escape the outside world, Dosie Crossan has stirred Josh''s heart. Meanwhile, a wolfpack of German U-boats has arrived to soak the island''s beaches with blood and oil. One of the U-boats is captained by the infamous Nazi warrior Otto Krebs. But Krebs has brought more than torpedoes to Killakeet. He may also have the answer to the mystery that haunts Josh Thurlow.

It is 1943, and the struggle against Japan rages across the steaming, jungle-choked Solomon Islands. As the fate of the South Pacific hangs precariously in the balance, Lieutenant David Armistead--a Marine Corps hero and cousin of President Franklin Roosevelt--is rumored to have deserted, perhaps to the enemy. For Coast Guard Commander Josh Thurlow, the news is particularly bad. He befriended Armistead while fighting by his side. Now he has orders straight from the top to bring him back or kill him in the attempt. Pressed into the mission is an officer who couldn''t be less like Josh: a shiftless PT boat skipper named John F. Kennedy. To find their elusive quarry, they and Josh''s crew of misfits must face dangers as exotic as the lush battleground that surrounds them, including implacable Japanese, an Australian coastwatcher-turned-warlord, and a beautiful seductress who will either steal Josh''s heart--or have his head...

A Montana rancher uncovers dinosaur bones—and a nest of dark deeds—in the #1 New York Times–bestselling author''s "fascinating thriller" (Douglas Preston, author of Tyrannosaur Canyon and Blasphemy). The cowboys who work on the ranchlands of Montana expect more than their fair share of trouble. One of them is Mike Wire, a former LAPD homicide detective. Mike is about to learn murder and mayhem can happen under Montana''s big skies, too. Beneath the earth lie enough dinosaur fossils to fill several museum collections—and make a fortune for whoever claims them first. Soon he will have to combine everything he learned as a cop with everything he knows as a cowboy to protect the people and the land he could never live without.

She was born to kill, born to die. Crescent is a crowhopper—a genetically modified mercenary programmed for ruthless warfare. When she’s taken prisoner by Crater Trueblood instead of being killed in battle, she thinks it’s a disaster. Crater is weary of war. He’s a miner, not a soldier. He’d rather be mining Helium-3 than battling the infernal crowhoppers. But after he captures Crescent and brings her to Moontown, he’s surprised how much he enjoys her company. When she’s falsely accused of murder, he becomes an outlaw to help her escape. The unlikely pair escapes into the “big suck” and wind up trekking with a caravan of mining pioneers toward a lunar ghost town called Endless Dust. To survive, they must do more than navigate the beautiful, desolate moonscape and battle a persistent band of crowhoppers sent to capture or kill them. They must decide what—and who—is truly worth fighting for. “Expertly blending space opera and hard sci-fi, romance, and even mystery . . . this is fast-paced, packed with intriguing ideas . . .” —Peter Gutierrez, Booklist Review “Classic Golden Age science fiction high-adventure. It brought back memories of reading Asimov . . . that same sense of wonder. I absolutely loved it.” —Michael Scott, New York Times Best-selling Author, The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series

A moving tribute to love—and alligators—from the #1 New York Times –bestselling author of Rocket Boys , the basis of the movie October Sky . Elsie Lavender and Homer Hickam (the father of the author) were high school classmates in the West Virginia coalfields, graduating just as the Great Depression began. When Homer asked for her hand, Elsie instead headed to Orlando where she sparked with a dancing actor named Buddy Ebsen (yes, that Buddy Ebsen). But when Buddy headed for New York, Elsie''s dreams of a life with him were crushed and eventually she found herself back in the coalfields, married to Homer. Unfulfilled as a miner''s wife, Elsie was reminded of her carefree days with Buddy every day because of his unusual wedding gift: an alligator named Albert she raised in the only bathroom in the house. When Albert scared Homer by grabbing his pants, he gave Elsie an ultimatum: "Me or that alligator!" After giving it some thought, Elsie concluded there was only one thing to do: Carry Albert home. Carrying Albert Home is the funny, sweet, and sometimes tragic tale of a young couple and a special alligator on a crazy one,zero-mile adventure. Told with the warmth and down-home charm that made Rocket Boys a beloved bestseller, Homer Hickam''s rollicking tale is ultimately a testament to that strange and marvelous emotion we inadequately call love. "An intentionally improbable, bizarre trip through Southern Americana that is . . . an amalgam of fact and an almost Walter Mitty-esque degree of fancy, evoking (because of the deadly yet indispensable animal) Life of Pi and (because of the trope of life as journey) Huckleberry Finn ." — BookPage

The #1 "New York Times" bestselling author of "Rocket Boys" continues his thrilling World War II adventure saga featuring Captain Josh Thurlow in the South Pacific.

“Hickam has a wild imagination and a keen eye for the science behind the fiction.” —JAVIER GRILLO-MARXUACH, writer & producer on Lost and Helix, creator of The Middleman Crater Trueblood has to rescue his ex-girlfriend . . . and the entire human race. Maria Medaris is the 21-year-old matriarch of the most powerful family on the moon—gorgeous, powerful, and high-maintenance. When she is kidnapped by green-lipped, gene-splicing scientists, Maria’s only hope turns out to be the very man she once spurned: Crater Trueblood. Crater and the Lunar Rescue Company must rescue Maria before she joins forces with the lunatics who have taken her hostage and aim to make her queen. Turns out more than Maria is at stake: the planet Earth, majestically rising over the lunar horizon, is in the crosshairs of an asteroid engineered by Maria’s abductors. If Crater can’t stop it, humanity on Earth will be destroyed. The fate of two worlds hangs in the balance . . . and the clock is ticking. “Hickam again displays a knack for suspenseful scenes out in the ‘big suck’ of space . . .” —KIRKUS Reviews “An exciting romp through a surprisingly realistic future.” —JASPER T. SCOTT, author of the Dark Space series