A Long Stone's Throw by Alphie McCourt

In high school, Angela's Ashes, by Frank McCourt, was required reading for most of the school. I was in the gifted & talented program, though, and had a different set of required literature. Everyone hated Angela's Ashes, as I remember, but something about it intrigued me, and I desperately wanted to read it. As soon as I got my hands on a copy, I read it and was hooked from page one. I proceeded to read the sequels: 'Tis, and later, Teacher Man, each purchased on the day of release. I want very much to meet Frank McCourt someday. I can only hope I have the chance. These books are his memoirs, written in such a way that in my head I hear his accent and even inflection, and can imagine myself sitting in his classroom listening to his stories, rather than reading them from across the country.

Alphie McCourt is the youngest brother of Frank, and in wandering in Barnes & Noble last weekend, I recognized his name immediately upon seeing this book, A Long Stone's Throw, on the shelf. I had to buy it! His writing style is a bit different from his brother's, but equally easy and engaging. I'm half-way through and love it.

These books, all of them, have a common thread in my mind: hope in the midst of hopelessness, overcoming all odds. They are sad, funny, bitingly honest, but hopeful even when despairing.

My favorite quote so far:

Newspapers, spread and layered among old overcoats and blankets, provide great
insulation against the cold. And our tablecloth is a newspaper. But when we try
to read books at the table, Mam despairs of us. "Yee always have yeer heads
buried in a book." We persist in trying to read at the table, but she won't
allow it. Such a practice is bad manners, she tells us, but we read anyway. We
read the newspaper tablecloth, even upside down. Reading, a terrible addiction.

I especially love that last sentence! I'll post again when I've finished it!