Cannonball Read 16

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Search This Site

> FAQ Home
> Tag: Alice Hoffman

sometimes you just want to be in a low-fi band with your sister, but a literal battle between immortality and death gets in the way

The Book of Love by Kelly Link

by 4 Comments

Absolutely perfect. No one can harness both the magic and ennui of being a teenager like Kelly Link. People will be handing this down to younger siblings for generations. Susannah and Laura are sisters. They are also band mates. The third member of their band, Daniel is their best friend and next-door neighbor. Oh, and Susannah’s friend-with-benefits. On the night of Daniel’s birthday, at a wild dive bar with a real carousel on stage, something happens: Susannah kisses Laura’s crush. Laura kisses Daniel. Susannah’s best […]

None for me, thanks

The Invisible Hour: A Novel by Alice Hoffman

by Leave a Comment

When I picked up this novel, I did not know who Alice Hoffman was. I have since learned that she has written many novels which often involve the use of magic and the supernatural. I suppose if I had known that going in, the twists in The Invisible Hour would have been less startling to me but I’m not sure it would have changed my feeling about this novel, which is pretty “meh.” The Invisible Hour starts with a very interesting premise that drew me […]

The Bookstore Sisters

The Bookstore Sisters by Alice Hoffman

by Leave a Comment

What a great short story by Hoffman. I love her anthology books for a reason. I have never really been able to get into her novels because I feel like they lose a lot along the way. But she always shines in her short stories. This one follows Isabel Gibson who now in her early 30s is alone and living in New York City. She fled her small town of Maine decades earlier after grieving the loss of her mother and father. She and her […]

“Trouble is just like love, after all; it comes in unannounced and takes over before you’ve had a chance to reconsider, or even to think.”

Pratical Magic by Alice Hoffman

by Leave a Comment

In one word: Lasting Cannonball Read Bingo: Holiday This is at least my fourth time reading Practical Magic; at this point in my life, I consider both it and Alice Hoffman old friends.  We may not talk a lot anymore, but we can always pick up right where we left off. Re-reading it is like taking a mini-holiday as it has become a cozy comfort read, and its magical elements make it perfect for a Halloween-y October book club selection, which is what got me […]

Witchy Woman

Magic Lessons by Alice Hoffman

by Leave a Comment

This is a prequel to the better known Practical Magic, which I have not yet read.  I am knocking a star off the rating, because it has that slight awkwardness of having to back into a previous opening, by their very nature, an issue with prequels.  The prequel trilogy of Star Wars is a classic example.  But it did make me want to read the original, so mission accomplished, I guess. Magic Lessons covers three generations of a family of witches and their allies.  Their […]

I like this book and now want pie

Nightbird by Alice Hoffman

by 3 Comments

“It was a miracle to live as birds do, except for one thing: anyone seen in flight would surely be captured, perhaps even shot down like a crow flying above a cornfield. It’s always dangerous to be different, to appear as a monster in most people’s eyes, even from a distance.” Nightbird by Alice Hoffman is about a town named Sidwell meant for ages 10-13. In Sidwell, people believe in fairy tales. Well, to be more specific, they believe in a monster, the Sidwell monster. […]



Help Our Mission

You can donate to CBR via:

  1. PayPal
  2. Venmo