The Owens family bloodline begins with Maria in the 1600s. Abandoned as a baby in a snowy field in rural England, Maria is discovered by Hannah Owens who was an orphan herself. Hannah is known not only for her kindness and herbal knowledge, but also for the fact that she could read and write—a rare skill for a working woman from the country. She recognizes that Maria has a gift and teaches the girl all about the "Unnamed Arts." The first lesson: Always love someone who will love you back.
When Maria is abandoned by the man who has declared his love for her, she follows him to Salem, Massachusetts. It is here where she invokes the curse that will haunt her family for centuries to come and where she learns the rules of magic. These are the lessons that Maria will carry with her for the rest of her life. Love is the only thing that matters.
Magic Lessons (the pre-prequel to Practical Magic and the prequel to The Rules of Magic) takes place in 17th-century and centres around the Owens matriarch, Maria. Readers follow her journey from England, to the Caribbean, and Salem, Massachusetts. Maria learns how to unlock the power of magic, including the infamous Owens family curse—any man who loves an Owens woman is doomed.
What I love most about these characters is that they are all strong and powerful women—women that are feared by a world that is not ready for them. Hoffman excels when she is writing about sisterhood and the bond between women. At the heart of this series is love and these are exactly the types of stories that we need more of.
There is going to be a fourth and final novel in the Practical Magic series that will primarily be about Sally's daughters as grown ups, and breaking the curse that was called down. I literally can't wait!
Magical. Beautiful. Mesmerizing. Steeped in the history of witchcraft, Magic Lessons is Hoffman at her finest.
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ALICE HOFFMAN has a BA from Adelphi University and an MA in creative writing from Stanford University.
Hoffman's first novel, Property Of, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of our most distinguished novelists. She has published over thirty novels, three books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults.
Her novel, Here on Earth, an Oprah Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Practical Magic was made into a Warner film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, At Risk, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Hoffman’s advance from Local Girls, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman Breast Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA.
Hoffman has written a number of novels for young adults, including Aquamarine, Green Angel, and the New York Times bestseller The Ice Queen. In 2007 Little Brown published the teen novel Incantation, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly has chosen as one of the best books of the year.
Her works have been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Hoffman's novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay “Independence Day,” a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Wiest. Her teen novel Aquamarine was made into a film starring Emma Roberts. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Times, Architectural Digest, Harvard Review, Ploughshares and other magazines.
She currently lives in Boston and New York.
ALICE HOFFMAN has a BA from Adelphi University and an MA in creative writing from Stanford University.
Hoffman's first novel, Property Of, was written at the age of twenty-one, while she was studying at Stanford, and published shortly thereafter by Farrar Straus and Giroux. Since that remarkable beginning, Alice Hoffman has become one of our most distinguished novelists. She has published over thirty novels, three books of short fiction, and eight books for children and young adults.
Her novel, Here on Earth, an Oprah Book Club choice, was a modern reworking of some of the themes of Emily Bronte’s masterpiece Wuthering Heights. Practical Magic was made into a Warner film starring Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman. Her novel, At Risk, which concerns a family dealing with AIDS, can be found on the reading lists of many universities, colleges and secondary schools. Hoffman’s advance from Local Girls, a collection of inter-related fictions about love and loss on Long Island, was donated to help create the Hoffman Breast Center at Mt. Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, MA.
Hoffman has written a number of novels for young adults, including Aquamarine, Green Angel, and the New York Times bestseller The Ice Queen. In 2007 Little Brown published the teen novel Incantation, a story about hidden Jews during the Spanish Inquisition, which Publishers Weekly has chosen as one of the best books of the year.
Her works have been published in more than twenty translations and more than one hundred foreign editions. Hoffman's novels have received mention as notable books of the year by The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Los Angeles Times, Library Journal, and People Magazine. She has also worked as a screenwriter and is the author of the original screenplay “Independence Day,” a film starring Kathleen Quinlan and Diane Wiest. Her teen novel Aquamarine was made into a film starring Emma Roberts. Her short fiction and non-fiction have appeared in The New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, The Los Angeles Times, Architectural Digest, Harvard Review, Ploughshares and other magazines.
She currently lives in Boston and New York.
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