Rating: 
Summary: Almost Practically Perfect
Review: Unlike the me of my childhood and teenage years, I didn't start reading Practical Magic (by Alice Hoffman) because a movie based on it had been released. I haven't even seen the movie, although my husband has, and he says wait until it gets to the dollar theatre. He's a movie connoisseur, and I have to admit that movie wasn't all that appealing anyway.But, I picked up this book upon the recommendation of one of my friends who insisted I read it. I can't remember why or when, but the impression was strong enough that I purchased a nice trade paperback copy and put it on my massive To Read pile by the bed. So here I am, reading this book, and I have mixed feelings about it. The story is good -so good that I have a hard time putting it down at night when it's time to go to sleep. The characters are compelling: two sets of sisters, a total four women in the Owens family. Sally, ever practical, and her younger sister, Gillian, the wild-child, are paralleled in some respect to Sally's teenage daughters, Antonia, lovely, yet moody, and Kylie, a blossoming, occasionally gawky, thirteen-year old. Hoffman's style is lovely and poetic. Listen how she describes the evening: It rained all night, and now the sticky air is moving in thick mauve-colored waves. The birds aren't singing this morning, it's too dark for that. But the humidity has brought the toads away from the creek behind the high school, and theyhave a sort of song, a deep humming that risees up through the sleepy neighborhood. The toads are crazy about Snickers, which teenagers sometimes throw to them at lunch hour. It's candy they're looking for as they wind along the neighborhood, hopping across the squishy lawns and through pools of rainwater that have collected in the gutters.... How exquisite! I thought to myself. And the rest of her words are equally graceful and appealing, full of lush imagery, sounds, smells, tastes, and touches. A veritable feast for the senses with an entertaining story full of witchcraft. Despite my affection for the story and Hoffman's graceful prose, I do have two major problems with the text itself: constant shifting in point of view and constant shifting in tense. See, I was taught that when you write, you stick to one person's perspective per scene to maintain a consistent flow, and Hoffman doesn't do that. She bounces around from character to character, sometimes in mid-stream, sometimes abruptly shifting back to the original person or else shifting again to another voice. On the one hand, I can see how an author would want to include everyone's perspective in a particular scene, but it's simply too distracting for the reader, especially one who is accustomed to writing as well. My second problem with the text focused on the shifting in tense. Hoffman starts out with past tense, as most books these days are written. In the second section, however, she shifts over to present tense. While one could rationalize that the author does this to indicate the past in the first section, as it focuses on the childhood years of Sally and Gillian, and to indicate the present in the later sections as they focus on the now, it still doesn't justify shifting, rather abruptly, I might add, from present back into past for several paragraphs. I had to stop reading for a moment, gather my senses, and go back to reread the previous section just to make sure that it wasn't me. Still, Practical Magic is a good read, perfect for the beach or beside the bed.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh! What a travesty that this book was published!
Review: Drag, drag, drag. I kept reading for two reasons: the first, I had nothing better to do one Sunday, and the second, I kept hoping something significant would happen. It didn't. This story had no climax, no capture, no passion. Who wants to read about the somber day to day lives of boring spinsters? (Of course I did, what a waste). Alice Hoffman is off my reading list. Her use of profanity was unwarranted and did not emphasize meaning in anything. Her characters were flat and the overall flow was slow if not stagnant. The ending was short and curt, as if she was just as bored writing it as it was to read. Unremarkable!
Rating:
Summary: Interesting combination of fantasy and real life drama.
Review: I read this book before it was made into a movie and found it to be an interesting combination of fantasy and real life situations. The Owens' sisters witchcraft allowed them to do what many of us wished we could do when faced with various situations in our life.
Rating:
Summary: Fanciful and light, whimsical
Review: A helluva lot better than the movie
Rating:
Summary: If you want to read "magic realism," read "Turtle Moon."
Review: As a former English teacher and lover of good fiction, I have enjoyed Alice Hoffman's "Turtle Moon," "Illumination Night," and "Seventh Heaven." When my daughter offered "Practical Magic," I snapped it up, and read it in a day, while attending a conference in Boston. I couldn't believe the poor quality of the writing, when compared with "Turtle Moon," say. Use of the f--- word was gratuitous, and the plot was strained to say the least. The witchy aunts (up there in Salem, I presume,) were interesting, once Hoffman got around to coloring in their sketches, in the last few pages. Lust, not true love, seemed to be the driving force. Come on, this is for ninth graders. What about the rest of us, who expect much more from Alice Hoffman? If you really want to enjoy Magic Realism, read "Like Water for Chocolate!!"
Rating:
Summary: MORE LIKE UNPRACTICAL MAGIC
Review: I finished this book in about 3 days realizing that the only thing that was noteworthy was the fact I had lost 3 days in my life to which I could have been reading something that was worthy of my time rather than wasting my time on this book. I read the book and saw the movie at the same time. If Hoffman had written a book with the same heart as the movie, maybe then I would not be so harsh. Plus, did she even do any kind of research for this book? Being a Wiccian,I am very disappointed.This girl needs to learn a few things about magic and the occult before she writes a book on it!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: My favorite book ever!
Review: I don't know why all the other reviews are so horrible! I read this book a long time ago, and have read it tons of times since! It's sad, but yet heartwarming. I can't put it down!
Rating: 
Summary: :O)
Review: This book was more about sisters and the power of females than it was about magic. If they wernt all so self absorbed the plot might have gone somewhere but they spent most of the time bickering over clothes and who was prettier. It was ok but I wouldnt read it again.
Rating:
Summary: Fairy Tale Classic
Review: The people who've been giving this book a negative review must never have had fairytales told to them during scary thunderstorm nights. It has that sort of quiet, thoughtful quality. The "frightening" part was how much the sisters lives are like my own family's life. I read it twice in as many days, finding something new in it both times. It's meant only to make you stop and think for a moment.
Rating:
Summary: A Bad Julia Childs meets a bad Anne Rice, where's Hoffman?
Review: I love Alice Hoffman but think this is the worst book I have ever read by her. There are so many refrences to food and stupid ones that it reads like a bad Julia Childs cookbook, and the only magic in this book is omens. Omens like swans and black cats, a bad Anne Rice. Aside from this the story is weak and without a point. Where is the Hoffman I enjoy?
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