Practical Magic

By: Alice Hoffman

Narrated by: Christina Moore

Alice Hoffman's enchanting witch's brew of suspense, romance and magic -- now a major motion picture from Warner Bros.
When the beautiful and precocious sisters Sally and Gillian Owens are orphaned at a young age, they are taken to a small Massachusetts town to be raised by their eccentric aunts, who happen to dwell in the darkest, eeriest house in town. As they become more aware of their aunts' mysterious and sometimes frightening powers -- and as their own powers begin to surface -- the sisters grow determined to escape their strange upbringing by blending into "normal" society.
But both find that they cannot elude their magic-filled past. And when trouble strikes -- in the form of a menacing backyard ghost -- the sisters must not only reunite three generations of Owens women but embrace their magic as a gift -- and their key to a future of love and passion.
Funny, haunting, and shamelessly romantic, Practical Magic is bewitching entertainment -- Alice Hoffman at her spectacular best.

review

It was good, but wish it was the full book. And wish the narrator wouldn't gulp air, click her tongue or make distracting mouth noises while she reads the story.

A lovely romantic story

The book has many differences from the movie, but I am still glad I read it. The movie is my absolute favorite and I enjoyed reading where is came from. I spent a good while pondering why the screenwriters made some of the changes they did.

Kinda Disappointed

Hoffman's prequel was better than this, as was the performance. And for once I liked the movie better than the book. I was pretty disappointed.

Wonderful!

She painted a portrait of the fragility and strength of women and the magic that is generated when they love each other.

For the first time in my life, I prefer the movie

I enjoyed this but at times the writing was almost too whimsical. Like the author was trying to convey a stream of conscious about magic. I actually think this whimsy was ruined by the narrator. Something about her is just too serious to capture what the text was going for. However the narrator wasn't so bad that I couldn't finish the book. She just seems miscast.