Tag: Alice Hoffman

July Reading WrapUp

Sharing my reading wrapup very late as we’re all recovering from a bad cold that floored us for a week. July was a slow month for reading but I thoroughly enjoyed the three books I did manage to read.

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

Magic Lessons was everything I hoped for in a prequel to Practical Magic (reviewed here) going back to tell the story of Maria the founding matriarch of the Owens family and the curse she cast to protect her descendents that ripples through the generations ever after. I absolutely adored Magic Lessons and found it gripping, heartbreaking and enchanting. Magic Lessons is a story of mothers and daughters, love and heartbreak, witchcraft and witch trials.

No Drama Discipline by Daniel J. Siegel and Tina Payne Bryson

I’d struggled a bit with The Whole Brain Child last year but decided to give this a try, and found it so much easier to understand and apply. Complex neuroscience is broken down into easy to grasp concepts about how to shape a child’s developing brain to teach them emotional regulation, morality, empathy and problem solving skills. No Drama Discipline is full of real examples of how to apply the whole brain discipline techniques that takes a contextual but long term approach to parenting, building a loving connection with your child and coaxing collaboration, though my personal favourite example was what to do when you’ve tried everything and none of it works.

The Book of Magic by Alice Hoffman

The bittersweet conclusion to the Owens family saga that ties all the threads together as Sally, Gillian, Franny, Jet and Vincent all work together to end the curse that Maria Owens cast over 400 years ago. I have loved this series so much and this was such a wonderful ending reuniting all the characters and introducing some new ones too that kept me hooked from start to finish.

Have a lovely weekend. X

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

I watched the film adaptation of Practical Magic starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman many years ago, but picked the book up from the library recently when I was in the mood for something witchy to read in October.

Practical Magic follows sisters Sally and Gillian Owens, raised by their aunts who practice witchcraft. Sally and Gillian are as different as could be, sensible to a fault, Sally just wants to be normal, while Gillian is a free-spirited drifter, but both are trying to escape the Owens’ legacy and the family curse of doomed romances.

After nearly two decades apart, Gillian turns up at Sally’s door with her dead boyfriend in the car, and the plot revolves around what happens when he continues to haunt them after they bury him in the backyard.

I really appreciated that it captured the complexity and intensity of female relationships between sisters, mothers and daughters, and even aunts and neices, the love and loyalty, the rivalry and jealousy, and even the sense of duty and obligation that characterises so many familial bonds.

I was hooked from the first page, the prose is descriptive and atmospheric, and the story wrapped itself around me like a blanket. Practical Magic is a tale of love, heartbreak, family, superstition and witchcraft, and it was a perfect choice for October and Halloween reading. Take care, and have a lovely week. X