Sunday Favorites: Practical Magic

This is going to be a new series on my blog! I'm gonna choose a new book or series each week, or close to each week. These are going to be books that I love and I just want to talk about everything I love about them. I'm excited!

In honor of me just finishing the prequel to Practical Magic, The Rules of Magic, I decided to make this my very first post in this series.

The first thing I love about this book is the writing style. Alice Hoffman has a way of writing her stories in a way where you feel like you're in a different world. I feel like I'm sitting there listening to someone tell me a story, sorta like a fairytale and I absolutely adore it. The writing feels so poetic and beautiful that you don't want to devour the entire story at once, you want to read it slowly and savour it.

Practical Magic is a world where the characters are dealing with real problems, but there just so happens to be a bit of magic mixed in. They're witches who have real problems just like any other human being. They can die, fall in love, fall out of love. The whole shebang. They even work day jobs.

I've mentioned this before, but I love the magic system. It's what I've always expected of witches and wizards for as long as I can remember. It's all about superstitions and weird things that happen that can never quite be explained, or can be explained away as an accident or a coincidence. They speak of magic and curses like they are living beings, it isn't quite something that can be understood, but they are okay with not knowing exactly what their magic is.

The romance in this book was full blown and I couldn't hate any matches that were made in this book. Even if it was insta love, I know I made a big deal about hating any and all instalove, but this book is my one exception to the rule. These characters are magic and have more intuition than the regular being and the way the emotions are described is too much for the reader to deny. Therefore, I will forgive any instalove that may happen in this book.

Because I am trying to do my best to avoid spoilers, that is all I will say. I truly do believe that this is an amazing book and if it sounds interesting you should definitely give it a shot.

If you've read Practical Magic what are some of your thoughts?

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The Stephen King Book Tag

I watched the It movie on opening day. Funny story, I went about two hours early with my friend to make sure we got good seats. The theatre ended up not even being full. I mean, it was a four o'clock showtime, but it was opening day so it should have been really busy. I guess it was better that it wasn't. I also have to mention, some lady brought her small children to see this movie. This movie was terrifying and I bet her children will be scarred for life. I just wanted to mention that. It was a wild movie-going experience. 

I should also note that this tag wasn't originally in English, I had to translate it from French and while I speak some French I am not the best at it so some of the questions may be wrong. I just thought you should be aware of that before hand. Disclaimer.

How many Stephen King books do you own?

9

How did you discover this author?

The movie The Shining, I was really into horror movies at the time.

What is the first book you read by him?

The Shining, it's probably Stephen King's most recognized work as it is also an incredibly famous movie, so it shouldn't come as a surprise that this is the first one to catch my eye.

How long have you been a fan?

For about five years now.

What is your favorite book? Who made you most afraid?

(I was going to use a picture of the book cover, but then I came across this badass picture and decided to use it instead. When I clicked on the photo it linked back to the Goodreads page so I don't actually know who made this, but I totally commend them for making such an awesome poster.)

My Favorite book as of now is Doctor Sleep. 

The character who scares me the most is Pennywise the Clown. I’m terrified of clowns.

Which book did you like least?

Cell, it took me quite a while to get through this one, and even when I was reading it, it was more like skim reading because I didn't care.

Do you have any Stephen King books in your TBR pile that you have not read yet?

Four: Finders Keepers, End of Watch, Under the Dome, and It.

What is your favorite new book?

I feel like I may not have translated this question correctly, but I’ll give it a go. I’m assuming this means, what is a newer book that I love, and if I’m not counting Doctor Sleep, then I would have to go with Mr. Mercedes. It was such a good book.

What do you like most in the style of this author?

His books always feel very nostalgic, no matter if they are scary or just about crime, they have this coming of age type feel that I love.

What do you think of adaptations? What is your favorite?

I for the most part really enjoy the adaptations, some could be better, but there are definitely some amazing ones out there like Stand By Me and the Shawshank Redemption that are pretty amazing. My favorite would have to be the original It mini series. The new It movie was a lot better in quality than the mini series, the mini series had a perfect mix of horror and the coming of age feeling that is attributed with a lot of Stephen King's work and I love it.

We all float down here.

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Best Book Adaptation: The Princess Bride

Time for another rant or rave! This week is a rave, as evident by the title. I just have to as that I'm so sorry it's been like two weeks since I've done one of these, I just kept going back and forth between two raves I wanted to do and just ended up settling on this one. Now let's get into it.

I read the Princess Bride a few months ago and loved it. Before I had read the book I'd seen the movie. Now obviously the movie is a classic, everyone and their mother has seen the Princess Bride. It's a necessity of life. What really cements the movie as worth a watch is that it is also incredibly accurate to the book.

I don't think anyone realizes just how true the movie is to the book. While I was reading the book I was just amazed that the movie had actual dialogue from the book, not just a line or two like most adaptation. This legit had entire scenes that were exactly as they were in the book. Honestly I could have watched the movie and read the book at the exact same time as reading the movie, just using the book as a script or something because it was that precise.

As for the casting choices, I think those were also fantastic. Especially Andre the Giant as Fezzik. The casting directors completely lucked out when they found him because all I could think whenever reading about Fezzik and what he looked like was that Andre was perfect for the role. Now the rest of the cast was also pretty good, especially Wesley who I have to admit was really attractive. Overall Andre was the best casting choice by far.

I might have even liked the movie a bit more than the book, it kept it more simple. In the book there is this entire subplot with the author and his fake life as an author and it was a bit confusing to say the least. On this not I thank the writers of the movie for just making it about a man telling a story to his grandson because that entire subplot in the book was just a huge whirlwind.

To end off, the story itself is truly one of a kind. It takes stereotypes and tropes and flips them on their head. Instead of being cheesy it's packed full of action, adventure, and true love. There is something there for everyone and that's what I think is the best part about the Princess Bride.

I can honestly say with 100% certainty that this was the best book to movie adaptation of which I have both read the book and seen the movie. This doesn't count those that I have only seen the movie or only read the book of.

Has anyone else read the book or the movie? What did you think?


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