The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
CBR Bingo – I LOVE THIS This is the first time I am participating in Cannonball Read Bingo and I am ALL IN BABY. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to swing a blackout by the end of October but my personal goal is to fill out the whole thing by the end of the year. Let’s do this thing! And what fun to review Alice Hoffman for my first Bingo pick! She has been one of my favorite authors since high school and […]
Incantation by Alice Hoffman
Incantation by Alice Hoffman is a work of historical fiction set during the Spanish Inquisition. Narrated by 16-year-old Estrella deMadrigal, this YA novel imagines how a family of good standing in small village gets swept up in the persecution of conversos, that is, Jews who had converted to Christianity but were later accused of secretly still practicing Judaism. Estrella will discover secrets about her family and have her eyes opened to the true nature of her neighbors and her best friend. The novel opens with […]
I saw the movie Practical Magic with Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman quite a few years ago. It’s one of those movies that I wanted to be better than it was — it seemed to have so much potential, but it just didn’t work, even with the wonderful Aidan Quinn as Bullock’s love interest. I have been in the mood lately, Halloween coming up I guess, to read some witch-related books, so even though I didn’t love the movie I had heard good things about […]
Bingo square: Cannonballer Says! Caitlin_D’s review is here. In the 1600s, Maria Owens fell in love with the wrong man. Left desolate and with child, her line was doomed by her curse – that those who fall in love with an Owens will be ruined. Siblings Franny, Jet and Vincent come of age in the 1960s, hardly aware of their heritage – that they come from a long line of witches. But they know they are different, and they thwart their mother’s rules: No walking […]
“Rules of Magic: Do as you will, but harm no one. What you give will be returned to you threefold. Fall in love whenever you can. I read Practical Magic earlier this year and was enamored by how much I liked the book despite its vast differences with the movie adaptation I’d grown up with. Hoffman published this prequel last year and it is a great stand alone novel and an adequate companion piece. My biggest complaint about prequels is authors trying to shoehorn the story they […]
I loved Practical Magic as a kid and it was routinely watched in our household. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman! Dianne Wiest and Stockard Channing! Magic! Romance! Dancing to “you put the lime in the coconut!” What is there not to like?! The novel the movie is based on, also called Practical Magic, is completely different than the movie. I think if I had read the novel first I would have been really upset about the movie adaptation but reading it after seeing the movie so many times I come to […]
