Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time


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“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

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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

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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

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“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. […]

Grab bag

Minty Alley by CLR James

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

Memoirs of a Fox-Hunting Man by Siegfried Sassoon

The Lazarus Project by Aleksandr Hemon

No One Writes to the Colonel by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

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The Lazarus Project This novel came out in 2008 in the middle of the 2008 presidential election. That doesn’t really have much to do with the plot here, but the novel makes several references to the Iraq war as a backdrop to parts of the present action, as well as the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. In addition, the novel spends a lot of time in early 20th century America, with a special focus on Eastern European immigrants in the US. The novel is mostly […]

the december rush

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Haunting of Gillespie House by Darcy Coates

Your Fathers, Where Are They? And Your Prophets, Do They Live Forever? by Dave Eggers

Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena

Near the Bone by Christina Henry

How to Take Smart Notes by Sonke Ahrens

The Lightness by Emily Temple

The Very Nice Box by Eve Gleichman, Laura Blackett

The Other Black Girl by Zakiya Dalila Harris

A Children's Bible by Lydia Millet

Come Tumbling Down by Seanan McGuire

Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman

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Franny, Jet, and Vincent Owens take special joy in disobeying their mother’s rules. They wear red shoes and black clothes. They read books about magic. They fall in love. It’s the Lower East Side in the 60s. Who can blame them? I didn’t realize this was a prequel. I just picked it up at an airport bookstore when I had 3 hours to kill and a low phone battery. I’m grateful this is the only book that called out to me. I’m always drawn to […]

“I never even believed in happiness. I didn’t think it existed. Now look at me. I’m ready to believe in just about anything.”

Practical Magic (Practical Magic, #1) by Alice Hoffman

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Somehow I made it thirty-three years without seeing the movie Practical Magic or reading the book it’s based on. I corrected the movie-watching on Netflix several years back, but I never thought about reading the book until Book of the Month put out this edition as an add-on the month they selected the prequel to be featured. I actually read the prequel first, and I really liked it! And it was clearly written after the popularity of the movie had sort of overshadowed the book, […]



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