The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
Published October 2017 by Simon and Schuster
Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:
Find your magic.

For the Owens family, love is a curse that began in 1620, when Maria Owens was charged with witchery for loving the wrong man.

Hundreds of years later, in New York City at the cusp of the sixties, when the whole world is about to change, Susanna Owens knows that her three children are dangerously unique. Difficult Franny, with skin as pale as milk and blood red hair, shy and beautiful Jet, who can read other people’s thoughts, and charismatic Vincent, who began looking for trouble on the day he could walk.

From the start Susanna sets down rules for her children: No walking in the moonlight, no red shoes, no wearing black, no cats, no crows, no candles, no books about magic. And most importantly, never, ever, fall in love. But when her children visit their Aunt Isabelle, in the small Massachusetts town where the Owens family has been blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong, they uncover family secrets and begin to understand the truth of who they are. Back in New York City each begins a risky journey as they try to escape the family curse.

The Owens children cannot escape love even if they try, just as they cannot escape the pains of the human heart. The two beautiful sisters will grow up to be the revered, and sometimes feared, aunts in Practical Magic, while Vincent, their beloved brother, will leave an unexpected legacy.

My Thoughts:
So, I know I just said, in another review, that I don't like supernatural elements in books. Literally just said it. Even after I had started reading this book. As it turns out, I may be wrong, at least when the supernatural is done by someone who knows how to do it as well as Alice Hoffman. For some reason, even though the entire book is about witches, and curses, and mind reading, it never felt like the magic was the center of the book. Instead, this is really a book about family, love, redemption, and being true to yourself and I do love a book with those themes.

I've never read Hoffman's Practical Magic (this is actually a prequel to that earlier book), but I love the movie adaptation, starring Sandra Bullock, Nicole, Kidman, and Stockard Channing and Dianne Wiest (the later two play Franny and Jet Owens, the sisters in this book). I adore that movie for the very reasons that I enjoyed this book. It's not a given that a movie adaptation of a book will fairly represent the book on which it was based (ok, it's often not even close); but, on the assumption that this one did, I had a feeling I would enjoy a book based on the aunts younger lives. Hoffman did not disappoint because, at it's heart, the magic in this book is the characters, who adored, each in their own way.

Even though the rules the Owens children grow up with are a little unusual, they are still rules made by parents and not understood by the children. Even though the Owens children have unique magical gifts and can often read each others minds, don't most siblings grow up each with their own unique gifts and an ability to read each other where others might not be able to do so? They don't appreciate their parents until they are gone, they long to be accepted, they long to be loved but are afraid of love - aren't these all things that are universal?

Hoffman charmed me with her blend of humor, sadness, grief, love, spirit, and family bond. Perhaps that was the greatest magic of the book. It's not perfect (it can drag on too long in some places and occasionally feel repetitive) but it was the perfect book for me at just the right time.

Life: It Goes On - October 8

Ladies and gentlemen: I have, perhaps for the first time, actually completed the R. I. P. Challenge. Already. Yea, me! Ok, ok - it's entirely to do with the fact that both of the books I read were downloaded from Netgalley and had to be read by now. But still!

This Week I'm:

Listening To: I've continued "reading" The Bones of Paradise. There's no way I would have gotten through the print copy of my library book before the book club bag was due back; being able to do a listen/read has been a lifesaver!

Watching: The Avett Brothers in concert! Oh, sure, it misted the entire concert and I was pretty cranky about that right up until they started. But once they started, I was remind again how much I enjoy their storytelling and the energy the entire band puts into giving their fans a great experience. 

Reading:  Basically, I've been a reading fool because I went completely berserk requesting books on Netgalley without paying any attention to archive dates. Boy, is it showing in my house. But we're only eight days into the month and I've finished three books, and will finish a fourth today. Of course, this week I will start Ron Chernow's Grant which will take me the next two weeks to read. My dad's also reading it so when I review it, you'll get his opinion, too. But he doesn't know he's going to do that, yet, so don't tell him.

Making: I can hardly remember what we ate for meals at all this week except I did make Irish nachos for supper on Friday. Health food at it's finest! Tator tots topped with ground beef, bacon, cheese, onion, sour cream, chives and tomato.

Planning: On heading off to Junkstock shortly. I don't usually go on Sundays but it has been so rainy here all week (several inches in just a couple of days) so I decided to give the mud a chance to dry up some.

Thinking About: How it might be time to give up on shorts and capris for the year. Even the cats, in their fur coats, have decided it's time to start cuddling up on our laps (aka stealing our body heat).  

Enjoying: Family. Jeff's cousin and his wife, as well as their son and his wife and baby boy, came to Nebraska this weekend from California. It's always good to get to spend some time with them and it was fun to get to meet the baby. As much as Facebook makes me crazy most days, it's been fun getting to watch him grow up that way but more fun to actually get to hold him!

Feeling: Angry. Wednesday night Mini-him walked out of work at 9 p.m. only to find that his car had been stolen. He's been driving the original Mama Shep's 2000 Honda Civic, nothing fancy at all. We're almost certain it was stolen for parts so don't hold much hope out for it being found. It was in fantastic shape and, of course, he had no car payment. It will be hard to replace, particularly since he hasn't been saving money to be ready to get a new car. So frustrating that people think it's ok to just take the things that others have worked so hard for.

Looking forward to: A normal week? I'm not entirely sure what that means any more. It seems like there's always something, even in this phase of our lives.

Question of the week: Have you ever had a car stolen? How did that experience end up for you?

The Witches' Tree by M. C. Beaton

The Witches' Tree by M. C. Beaton
Published October 2017 by St. Martin's Press
Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:
Cotswolds inhabitants are used to inclement weather, but the night sky is especially foggy as Rory and Molly Devere, the new vicar and his wife, drive slowly home from a dinner party in their village of Sumpton Harcourt. They strain to see the road ahead—and then suddenly brake, screeching to a halt. Right in front of them, aglow in the headlights, a body hangs from a gnarled tree at the edge of town. Margaret Darby, an elderly spinster, has been murdered—and the villagers are bewildered as to who would commit such a crime.

Agatha Raisin rises to the occasion (a little glad for the excitement, to tell the truth, after a long run of lost cats and divorces on the books). But Sumpton Harcourt is a small and private village, she finds—a place that poses more questions than answers. And when two more murders follow the first, Agatha begins to fear for her reputation—and even her life. That the village has its own coven of witches certainly doesn't make her feel any better...

My Thoughts:
M. C. Beaton is known for two series of books, one featuring Hamish Macbeth (whom I adore), and one featuring Agatha Raisin. Agatha is a character that the other characters in Beaton's books tend to dislike so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that I don't care much for her myself. I feel rather bad about this given that she is a woman of a certain age (mine) who has bad a name for herself and runs her own business. But to call Agatha "independent" would be wrong. She is forever trying to find the love of her life; she wants the full on romance. I tend to come away from books featuring her feeling that we've dwelt entirely too much on Agatha's problems with men. Which isn't fair, I suppose, when I consider how much time is devoted to Hamish's love life in his series. Nevertheless.

This time it really did feel a bit like Beaton forgot all about the murders as the book went on. Even when we got to the end, it felt like Beaton had forgotten to tie up some of the loose ends. In some books, that would be alright. But this is a cozy mystery and cozy mysteries are meant to finish all neat and tidy. In fact, there was a lot about the book that felt as though it hadn't been thoroughly thought out, from the fact that the coven so much is made of that ends up featuring almost not at all to conversations that don't seem to flow properly. My copy is, as I note above, a egalley. Perhaps before the book went to press, some of those concerns were cleaned up.

In the end, it's a fun enough book (if one can say a book in which four people are murdered is "fun"). It just wasn't up to the standards of Beaton's previous books.

Life: It Goes On - October 4

We finally got to my sister's and brother-in-law's new house this last weekend (hence, no post on Sunday). Just the Big Guy and I were able to go but it did give us a little more flexibility; made a bit of an adventure of the trip north that included a trip to a book store where the owner gifts you a free book on your first visit. He asks about your reading preferences than chooses a book he think you'll enjoy from his inventory of used books. I think we both got winners. Of course, the benefit of this for him was that we felt obligated to buy a couple of books as well (as if I weren't already going to buy a book!). If you're ever in Red Wing, Minnesota (also home of Red Wing pottery and Red Wing boots), I highly recommend you check out Fair Trade Books.

This Week I'm:

Listening To: The Big Guy and I tried to listen to Jonis Agee's The Bones of Paradise on our trip but with our meandering up and semi-stressful ride home, we only got through one disc. So I'm listening to it this week as a read/listen combo.

Watching: Over the weekend we spent a good deal of time watching that river that my sister's property backs on to, a bonfire, and some football.

Reading: I have soooo many books to finish this week, between a library book due back soon and Netgalley books that are about to expire. I'm hoping to finish M. C. Beaton's The Witches' Tree today then it's on to Alice Hoffman's latest, The Rules of Magic, which is a sort of prequel to her Practical Magic.

Making: Tacos, coleslaw, steaks, fried apples, salads, and BLT's. We seem to be fighting the end of summer eating.

Planning: On spending most of the rest of my free time this week reading.

Thinking About: Getting my Halloween decorations out today.

Top to bottom, left to right: looking up at my sister's house from the river, getting love from one of their dogs who kind of loves me, the river my sister's house backs onto, on a wagon ride through an orchard, the guys at winery #1, BG and I at winery #2, and my sister and me at winery #1.

Enjoying: See collage.

Feeling: Like Menomonie is too far away, especially with winter just around the corner.

Looking forward to: Seeing The Avett Brothers in concert tomorrow night.

Question of the week: When someone asks you what you like to read, what's your quick answer? Can you even narrow it down?

We Were Eight Years In Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates

We Were Eight Years In Power by Ta-Nehisi Coates
Published October 2017 by Diversified Publishing
Source: my copy courtesy of the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review

Publisher's Summary:
“We were eight years in power” was the lament of Reconstruction-era black politicians as the American experiment in multiracial democracy ended with the return of white supremacist rule in the South. In this sweeping collection of new and selected essays, Ta-Nehisi Coates explores the tragic echoes of that history in our own time: the unprecedented election of a black president followed by a vicious backlash that fueled the election of the man Coates argues is America’s “first white president.”

But the story of these present-day eight years is not just about presidential politics. This book also examines the new voices, ideas, and movements for justice that emerged over this period—and the effects of the persistent, haunting shadow of our nation’s old and unreconciled history. Coates powerfully examines the events of the Obama era from his intimate and revealing perspective—the point of view of a young writer who begins the journey in an unemployment office in Harlem and ends it in the Oval Office, interviewing a president.

We Were Eight Years in Power features Coates’s iconic essays first published in The Atlantic, including “Fear of a Black President,” “The Case for Reparations,” and “The Black Family in the Age of Mass Incarceration,” along with eight fresh essays that revisit each year of the Obama administration through Coates’s own experiences, observations, and intellectual development, capped by a bracingly original assessment of the election that fully illuminated the tragedy of the Obama era. We Were Eight Years in Power is a vital account of modern America, from one of the definitive voices of this historic moment.


My Thoughts:
I'll bet you thought you knew what that title referred to, before you read the summary, didn't you? I did, too. We are only partially right. The title is actually taken from a quote by South Carolina congressman Thomas Miller in 1895:

"We were eight years in power. We had built schoolhouses, established charitable institutions, built and maintained the penitentiary system, provided for the education of the dear and dumb, rebuilt the ferries. In short, we had reconstructed the State and placed it upon the rode to prosperity."

It was Miller's plea to the "fair-minded people of South Carolina to preserve the citizenship rights of African Americans." It didn't work. The white men who had recently fought so hard to preserve slavery were not ready yet to acknowledge the "actual record of Negro government;" that success undermined white supremacy and had to be crushed.

We Were Eight Years In Power is a series of essays, written during the eight years of Barack Obama's presidency, along with a new essay used to introduce each of the previous essays. In the new essays, Coates examines how his own opinions have changed, explains what he was trying to say in those original essays, and sheds even more light on the subjects he covers. It is clear that Coates is a man who is tireless in his desire to learn but willing to admit that his opinions may change and that there are grays areas.

This book is a tough read for a white person. It made me uncomfortable. It sometimes made me defensive. It absolutely opened my eyes and made me rethink things I had taken as truth, from Booker T. Washington to  Ken Burns' documentary about the Civil War and revered historian Shelby Foote, from W. E. B. Dubois to Malcolm X, from the reasons black Americans were happy to see a black man elected president to ways that Obama failed them (although Coates does not blame Obama for all of those failures).

I have my copy of this book through Netgalley which means that it will expire in a couple of weeks. It's a book I will likely buy a copy of, a book that I feel I will need to pick up again to reread essays, to continue to think about the things Coates has said. At one point Coates talks about people asking him to be the voice of black people now and how he is not comfortable with some of the things they ask of him. I'm not sure I'm ready to accept him as the only voice of black Americans. But he is certainly an important one, a writer who will have me looking to learn more.