The Rules of Magic

10 / 15 / 2010 / 10 / 20

The Rules of Magic by Alice Hoffman
Published by Simon & Schuster on June 26, 2018
Pages: 367
Format: Paperback
Goodreads
four-half-stars

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.

Hello!
Welcome to the Fifteenth day of October! I hope that your year has been going well. If you have been with me a while, you will know that every year I attempt to watch a lot of scary movies for October mostly to cure myself of my wariness of scary movies. When I started this series several years ago, I could barely sit through a scary movie to save my life. Now since doing this series I can say that I am much better. Last year, I decided to attempt to add books to this series. Unfortunately, I didn’t end up completing this series last year, but I have high hopes for this year 😉

This book was part of the recommended reads for the Paper & Glam book club read back in 2019, but alas I didn’t get to it then. I was finally able to read the second book in the series, which you can read the review on that here. I was hoping to also review this book during this series, since it went so well together and after reading the other book I couldn’t wait to spend more time with the Owens family.

I loved that Alice Hoffman chose to do a prequel to Practical Magic first because it gave me a better perspective on Franny & Jet and life that they led before they came to be the aunts that would raise Gillian & Sally. It was interesting also see how the small town in Massachusetts changed over the years.

I would definitely recommend you read this book if you are looking for a fun Halloween read that isn’t too scary. I would also recommend this book if you have read Practical Magic and want to spend more time with the Owens family. Recently another book in this series was released and I can’t wait to read it since it goes back to the beginning and we learn about Maria Owens.

I hope that you have been enjoying the content so far and that you’ll stick around for more content that will come throughout the rest of the month. See you soon!

PS I Love You

8 / 25 / 208 / 21 / 20

P.S. I Love You (P.S. I Love You, #1) by Cecelia Ahern
Published by Hachette Books on January 5, 2005
Pages: 501
Format: Paperback
Goodreads
four-half-stars

A novel about holding on, letting go, and learning to love again.
Now in paperback, the endearing novel that captured readers' hearts and introduced a fresh new voice in women's fiction Cecelia Ahern.
Holly couldn't live without her husband Gerry, until the day she had to. They were the kind of young couple who could finish each other's sentences. When Gerry succumbs to a terminal illness and dies, 30-year-old Holly is set adrift, unable to pick up the pieces. But with the help of a series of letters her husband left her before he died and a little nudging from an eccentric assortment of family and friends, she learns to laugh, overcome her fears, and discover a world she never knew existed.
The kind of enchanting novel with cross-generational appeal that comes along once in a great while, PS, I Love You is a captivating love letter to the world!

Hey…
I know that it has been a minute since I have been here, but I just finished another book and I wanted to review it for you. This was a Paper & Glam book club read for February , which I didn’t get around to reading to until now.

I had seen this movie when it came out in 2007. If you haven’t seen it yet, it stars Hillary Swank and Gerard Butler it’s really good. I would highly recommend that you have a box of tissues near you because you will cry quite a bit through the movie.

The book is quite a bit different from the movie, so if you have watched the movie first you won’t be spoiled by what happens in the the book. You will definitely love the book hopefully just as much as the movie. If you haven’t read the synopsis above make sure that you check that out.

I would definitely recommend this book if you are into more modern love stories and yet not want something super mushy or something too lit-erotica.

I would love to hear if you have read this book and what you thought about it. This has definitely been a tough reading year for me with everything that has been going on, but hopefully I am finally turning a corner. Let me know what you have been reading lately and what you would recommend.

See you soon !

The Happiness Project

2 / 25 / 202 / 25 / 20

The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun by Gretchen Rubin
Published by Harper on December 29, 2009
Pages: 301
Goodreads
four-stars

Gretchen Rubin had an epiphany one rainy afternoon in the unlikeliest of places: a city bus. “The days are long, but the years are short,” she realized. “Time is passing, and I’m not focusing enough on the things that really matter.” In that moment, she decided to dedicate a year to her happiness project.
In this lively and compelling account, Rubin chronicles her adventures during the twelve months she spent test-driving the wisdom of the ages, current scientific research, and lessons from popular culture about how to be happier. Among other things, she found that novelty and challenge are powerful sources of happiness; that money can help buy happiness, when spent wisely; that outer order contributes to inner calm; and that the very smallest of changes can make the biggest difference.

Hello!
I know that it has been a minute since I have written a post here, but if you have been following along with my Goodreads, always linked in the sidebar, you will know that I still have been reading. There are a few books that I finished this month that won’t end up being reviewed here, but if you saw that I finished it feel free to ask for my quick thoughts on the books. I may also end up doing a monthly wrap up of everything that happened this month, but we’ll see what happened.

Let’s get back to the real reason why we are here, I finished Gretchen Rubin’s The Happiness Project earlier this month and it was a quick read. I loved that every month was a different chapter and in ways it felt quit a bit like some of the books she referenced. I also loved that she had some thought on goals and resolutions and creating a detailed vision of each month. This also gave me the idea of starting my own version of the project, but there will probably be for another year. There is just a lot happening this year ( more on that in a later post).

I would definitely recommend this book for someone who likes Gretchen Rubin, and someone who is into self help books. If you have read quite a bit of self help books you might find the information a bit repetitive, but Gretchen’s presentation of the information is different than others and it is worth giving a shot.

Outer Order, Inner Calm

1 / 30 / 202 / 1 / 20

Outer Order, Inner Calm: Declutter & Organize to Make More Room for Happiness by Gretchen Rubin
Published by Harmony on March 5, 2019
Pages: 208
Goodreads
four-stars

Bestselling author of The Four Tendencies and The Happiness Project Gretchen Rubin illuminates one of her key realizations about happiness: For most of us, outer order contributes to inner calm. In a new book packed with more than one hundred concrete ideas, she helps us create the order and organization that can make our lives happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative.
In the context of a happy life, a messy desk or crowded coat closet is a trivial problem–yet Gretchen Rubin has found that getting control of the stuff of life makes us feel more in control of our lives generally. By getting rid of things we don’t use, don’t need, or don’t love, as well as things that don’t work, don’t fit, or don’t suit, we free our mind (and our shelves) for what we truly value.
In this trim book filled with insights, strategies, and sometimes surprising tips, Gretchen tackles the key challenges of creating outer order, by explaining how to “Make Choices,” “Create Order,” “Know Yourself–and Others,” “Cultivate Helpful Habits,” and, of course, “Add Beauty.”
When we get our possessions under control, we feel both calmer and more energetic. With a sense of humor, and also a clear sense of what’s realistic for most people, Gretchen suggests dozens of manageable steps for creating a more serene, orderly environment–one that helps us to create the lives we yearn for.

Hey!
I’m back with yet another book interview. I’m still pulling my life together with the latest computer migration along with some crazy personal life things that have happened recently. I’ll talk about all of this a bit more in a later post. Right now we’re here to talk about my latest read Outer Order, Inner Calm by Gretchen Rubin. This was the January read for the Paper & Glam book club, which means that I am currently doing well with my reading goals for the year.

I thought that this book read a quite a bit like Marie Kondo’s The Magic of Tidying Up. If you want you can read my review of that book here, it was actually last January that this craze hit! I thought that Gretchen Rubin’s take on tidying up was less drastic and crazy than Marie Kondo’s so that the two methods can be used in conjunction with each other to completely a tidy up. I would recommend you read this book if you have already read the Marie Kondo book and need a bit more motivation for tidying up or have cleaned out Marie Kondo style and are wondering what’s next. I loved Gretchen Rubin as an author and plan on reading a couple more of her books this year.

Let me know what you have been reading lately and if you have read this book or are planning on reading it. See you soon!

WinterWood

1 / 23 / 201 / 30 / 20

Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw
Published by Simon Pulse on November 5, 2019
Pages: 323
Goodreads
four-stars

Be careful of the dark, dark wood…
Especially the woods surrounding the town of Fir Haven. Some say these woods are magical. Haunted, even.
Rumored to be a witch, only Nora Walker knows the truth. She and the Walker women before her have always shared a special connection with the woods. And it’s this special connection that leads Nora to Oliver Huntsman—the same boy who disappeared from the Camp for Wayward Boys weeks ago—and in the middle of the worst snowstorm in years. He should be dead, but here he is alive, and left in the woods with no memory of the time he’d been missing.
But Nora can feel an uneasy shift in the woods at Oliver’s presence. And it’s not too long after that Nora realizes she has no choice but to unearth the truth behind how the boy she has come to care so deeply about survived his time in the forest, and what led him there in the first place. What Nora doesn’t know, though, is that Oliver has secrets of his own—secrets he’ll do anything to keep buried, because as it turns out, he wasn’t the only one to have gone missing on that fateful night all those weeks ago.
For as long as there have been fairy tales, we have been warned to fear what lies within the dark, dark woods and in Winterwood, New York Times bestselling author Shea Ernshaw, shows us why.
From New York Times bestselling author of The Wicked Deep comes a haunting romance perfect for fans of Practical Magic, where dark fairy tales and enchanted folklore collide after a boy, believed to be missing, emerges from the magical woods—and falls in love with the witch determined to unravel his secrets.

Hey!
I’m back with yet another book review. Also I apologize if it looks like a hot mess around here for a bit. I am in the midst of switching computers, so I am trying to get things back up and running around the scenes. I do miss you guys and I hope to be back here more with more real entries, but the beginning of this year has been a little rough.

I had finished this book a couple of weeks ago and I just haven’t had the time to write about it here. In case you haven’t figured it out, but this entry is going to be a review of the book Winterwood by Shea Ernshaw. This is Shea Ernshaw’s second book, if you haven’t read my review on her first one you can read that here, I actually included it my Creating & Co September Readathon called the TBR Throwdown, since I didn’t get to read it when it was an actual read for the Creating & Co book club.

I won’t give a huge long summary since I’m hoping to get my blog a bit more fixed up, before this entry gets full fledged read by the masses. In general I enjoyed the book and it kept with Shea Ernshaw’s theme of creating very atmospheric story. I can’t remember if she did the back and forth between the two characters, but I thought that it worked in this book really well. I really should learn to expect the twist at the ending of these books, but I haven’t gotten to the point yet. I was still really surprised for the twist and yet I loved it all the same. I especially loved the witchy aspects of the books with the spells and such.

I would definitely recommend this book to people who have previously read Shea Ernshaw’s book and if you are into atmospheric books. I would also recommend this to someone who would like the slight witchy vibes to the story. Let me know if you have read this book and what you thought of it. I hope to be back soon with another post.