Alice Hoffman Popular Books

Alice Hoffman Biography & Facts

Alice Hoffman (born March 16, 1952) is an American novelist and young-adult and children's writer, best known for her 1995 novel Practical Magic, which was adapted for a 1998 film of the same name. Many of her works fall into the genre of magic realism and contain elements of magic, irony, and non-standard romances and relationships. Early life and education Alice Hoffman was born in New York City and raised on Long Island, New York. Her grandmother was a Russian-Jewish immigrant. She graduated from Valley Stream North High School in 1969, and then from Adelphi University with a Bachelor of Arts. She was a Mirrielees Fellow at the Stanford University Creative Writing Center in 1973 and 1974, where she earned a Master of Arts in Creative Writing. Career When Hoffman was twenty-one and studying at Stanford, her first short story, At The Drive-In, was published in Volume 3 of the literary magazine Fiction. Editor Ted Solotaroff contacted her, and asked whether she had a novel. At that point, she began writing her first novel, Property Of. It was published in 1977, by Farrar Straus and Giroux, now a division of Macmillan Publishers. A section of Property Of was published in Solotaroff's literary magazine, American Review. Hoffman's first job was at Doubleday, which later published two of her novels. She was the recipient of a New Jersey Notable Book Award for Ice Queen. She won a Hammett Prize for Turtle Moon. She wrote the screenplay for the 1983 film Independence Day, starring Kathleen Quinlan and Dianne Wiest. In September 2019 Hoffman released The World That We Knew based on a true story told to her by a fan at a book signing. The woman confided to Hoffman that during World War 2, her Jewish parents had her live with non-Jewish people to escape the Nazis. These were known as "hidden children" and Hoffman thought about this woman and her unusual upbringing for years before deciding to travel to Europe and learn more.The third novel in her "Practical Magic" series, Magic Lessons, was released in October 2020. This prequel takes place in the 17th century and explores the life of Maria Owens, the family matriarch.For Scholastic Press, Hoffman has also written the young adult novels Indigo, Green Angel, and its sequel, Green Witch. With her son Wolfe Martin, she wrote the picture book Moondog.In 2015, Hoffman donated her archives to her alma mater, Adelphi University. Personal life Hoffman resides in Boston. After being treated for breast cancer at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, she helped establish the hospital's Hoffman Breast Center. Bibliography Novels Young adult novels Aquamarine (2001) Indigo (2002) Green Angel (2003) Water Tales: Aquamarine & Indigo (omnibus edition) (2003) The Foretelling (2005) Incantation (2006) Green Witch (sequel to Green Angel) (2010) Green Heart (omnibus of Green Angel & Green Witch) (2012)Middle grade books Nightbird (2015)Children's books Fireflies: A Winter's Tale (illustrated by Wayne McLoughlin) (1999) Horsefly (paintings by Steve Johnson and Lou Fancher) (2000) Moondog (with Wolfe Martin; illustrated by Yumi Heo) (2004)Short stories Conjure (2014)Nonfiction Survival Lessons (2013)Filmography Independence Day (1983) (writer) Practical Magic (1998) (novel) Sudbury (2004) (novel) The River King (2005) (novel) Aquamarine (2006) (novel) The Dovekeepers (2014) (novel)References External links Alice Hoffman's website Alice Hoffman at IMDb Alice Hoffman at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database Jewish Women's Archive page Radio Interview on WFMT's Writers on the Record with Victoria Lautman. Discover the Alice Hoffman popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Alice Hoffman books.

Best Seller Alice Hoffman Books of 2024

  • The Spanish Daughter synopsis, comments

    The Spanish Daughter

    Lorena Hughes

    “An engrossing, suspenseful family saga filled with unpredictable twists and turns.” Chanel Cleeton, New York Times bestselling author of Next Year in Havana“With an equal mix of h...

  • A Cup of Silver Linings synopsis, comments

    A Cup of Silver Linings

    Karen Hawkins

    Discover the “sometimes whimsical, often insightful, always absorbing” (Shelf Awareness) Dove Pond series with this novel that explores the magic in the tea leavesfrom New York Tim...

  • The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove synopsis, comments

    The Secret Recipe of Ella Dove

    Karen Hawkins

    Three lives converge as a wildly talented baker returns to Dove Pond to face her past in this entry in the charming series that proves that sometimes miracles really do happen...El...

  • The Book Charmer synopsis, comments

    The Book Charmer

    Karen Hawkins

    Prepare to fall under the spell of “this sometimes whimsical, often insightful, always absorbing story” (Shelf Awareness) following two fiercely independent women and their truly m...

  • The Tenth Circle synopsis, comments

    The Tenth Circle

    Jodi Picoult

    From New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult, a powerful novel that explores the unbreakable bond between parent and child, and questions whether you can reinvent yourself i...

  • Faithful synopsis, comments

    Faithful

    Alice Hoffman

    From the New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage of Opposites and The Dovekeepers comes a soulsearching story about a young woman struggling to redefine herself and the p...

  • The Square of Sevens synopsis, comments

    The Square of Sevens

    Laura Shepherd-Robinson

    This “intricately plotted, epic” (The Times, London) international bestsellerin the vein of the vivid novels of Sarah Waters and Sarah Perryfollows an orphaned fortune teller in 18...

  • Whistling Past the Graveyard synopsis, comments

    Whistling Past the Graveyard

    Susan Crandall

    From an awardwinning author comes a wise and tender comingofage story about a nineyearold girl who runs away from her Mississippi home in 1963, befriends a lonely woman suffering l...

  • Sing You Home synopsis, comments

    Sing You Home

    Jodi Picoult

    From the awardwinning, #1 New York Times bestselling author whom USA TODAY calls a “master of the pageturner,” comes the spectacular story of a woman’s complex quest to form a fami...

  • Roses and Rot synopsis, comments

    Roses and Rot

    Kat Howard

    Imogen and her sister Marin escape their cruel mother to attend a prestigious artists’ retreat, but soon learn that living in a fairy tale requires sacrifices, whether it be art or...

  • Winterwood synopsis, comments

    Winterwood

    Shea Ernshaw

    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 ...

  • The Dovekeepers synopsis, comments

    The Dovekeepers

    Alice Hoffman

    An ambitious and mesmerizing novel from the bestselling author of Rules of Magic. The Dovekeepers is “striking….Hoffman grounds her expansive, intricately woven, and deepest new no...

  • From Time to Time synopsis, comments

    From Time to Time

    Jack Finney

    Jack Finney's beloved sequel to his classic, New York Times bestselling illustrated novel Time and Again.Simon Morley, whose logicdefying trip to the New York City of the 1880s in ...

  • Lone Wolf synopsis, comments

    Lone Wolf

    Jodi Picoult

    A life hanging in the balance…a family torn apartNew York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult tells an unforgettable story about family secrets, love, and letting go. On an icy w...

  • Over the Moon synopsis, comments

    Over the Moon

    Jodi Picoult & Jake van Leer

    Master storyteller and bestselling author Jodi Picoult teams up with Jake van Leer and Ellen Wilber to bring you an original musical, sure to breathe life into any middleschool and...

  • Once Upon a River synopsis, comments

    Once Upon a River

    Diane Setterfield

    From the instant #1 New York Times bestselling author of the “eerie and fascinating” (USA TODAY) The Thirteenth Tale comes a “swift and entrancing, profound and beautiful” (Madelin...

  • The River King synopsis, comments

    The River King

    Alice Hoffman

    A story about a small town's surface appearance and the truths submerged below from the New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic.People tend to stay in their place i...

  • Salem Falls synopsis, comments

    Salem Falls

    Jodi Picoult

    From #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult comes a compelling and “multilayered tale of smalltown intrigue” (Glamour) about a prep schoolteacher accused of rape by a gr...

  • Alice Hoffman synopsis, comments

    Alice Hoffman

    Kathleen McMillan Guthrie

    "Alice Hoffman: Queen of Bogue Banks" is the unbelievable historical account of a toolargeforlife woman who decides to forge her own way in the late nineteenth and early twentieth ...

  • Practical Magic synopsis, comments

    Practical Magic

    Alice Hoffman

    25th Anniversary Editionwith an Introduction by the Author!The Owens sisters confront the challenges of life and love in this bewitching novel from the New York Times bestselling a...

  • Second Glance synopsis, comments

    Second Glance

    Jodi Picoult

    This breathtaking novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult asks: Do we love across time, or in spite of it?“Sometimes I wonder....Can a ghost find you, if she w...

  • The Midwife of Venice synopsis, comments

    The Midwife of Venice

    Roberta Rich

    Not since Anna Diamant’s The Red Tent or Geraldine Brooks’s People of the Book has a novel transported readers so intimately into the complex lives of women centuries ago or so ric...

  • About Time synopsis, comments

    About Time

    Jack Finney

    About Time offers a delightful return to the world of time travel and light comedy that distinguished Jack Finney's alltime classic Time and Again. The protagonists of these twelve...

  • Songs of the Humpback Whale synopsis, comments

    Songs of the Humpback Whale

    Jodi Picoult

    Jodi Picoult’s powerful novel portrays an emotionally charged marriage that changes course in one explosive moment.Sometimes finding your own voice is a matter of listening to the ...

  • Between the Lines synopsis, comments

    Between the Lines

    Jodi Picoult & Samantha van Leer

    Soon to be an offBroadway musical!In this delightful companion novel to Off the Page, #1 New York Times bestselling authors Jodi Picoult and her daughter and cowriter, Samantha van...

  • The Marriage of Opposites synopsis, comments

    The Marriage of Opposites

    Alice Hoffman

    “A luminous, Marquezesque tale” (O, The Oprah Magazine) from the New York Times bestselling author of The Museum of Extraordinary Things: a forbidden love story set on a tropical i...

  • Plain Truth synopsis, comments

    Plain Truth

    Jodi Picoult

    From the bestselling author of My Sister's Keeper comes the riveting story of a murder that shatters the picturesque calm of Amish countryand tests the heart and soul of the lawyer...

  • Second Nature synopsis, comments

    Second Nature

    Alice Hoffman

    A suburban woman discovers her own wild spirit in this “suspenseful...dark, romantic meditation on what it means to be human”(The New Yorker) from the bestselling author of Th...

  • Perfect Match synopsis, comments

    Perfect Match

    Jodi Picoult

    Picoult brings to life a female prosecutor whose cherished family is shattered when she learns that her fiveyearold son has been sexually abused.What does it mean to be a good moth...

  • The Bright Hour synopsis, comments

    The Bright Hour

    Nina Riggs

    INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Stunning…heartrending…this year’s When Breath Becomes Air.” Nora Krug, The Washington Post “Beautiful and haunting.” Matt McCarthy, MD, USA TOD...

  • The Orphan Witch synopsis, comments

    The Orphan Witch

    Paige Crutcher

    "Mystical, magical, and wildly original...If Alice Hoffman and Sara Addison Allen had a witchy love child, she would be Paige Crutcher. Do not miss this beautifully realized debut!...

  • The Invisible Hour by AliceHoffman A beautiful story synopsis, comments

    The Invisible Hour by AliceHoffman A beautiful story

    The Invisible Hour A Novel: Thoughtful and magical

    An fascinating tale about love, sorrow, selfdiscovery, and the eternal enchantment of books is the next release from the adored New York Times bestselling author of The Marriage of...

  • Skylight Confessions synopsis, comments

    Skylight Confessions

    Alice Hoffman

    Writing at the height of her powers, Alice Hoffman conjures three generations of a family haunted by love. Cool, practical, and deliberate, John is dreamy Arlyn's polar opposite. Y...

  • The Red Garden synopsis, comments

    The Red Garden

    Alice Hoffman

    From the author of Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick The Rules of Magic comes a transfixing glimpse into a small American town where a mysterious, magical garden holds the...

  • House Rules synopsis, comments

    House Rules

    Jodi Picoult

    From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and the modern classics My Sister’s Keeper, The Storyteller, and more, comes a “complex, compassionate, and smar...

  • Vanishing Acts synopsis, comments

    Vanishing Acts

    Jodi Picoult

    The #1 New York Times bestselling author of modern classics such as My Sister’s Keeper and Small Great Things weaves a “richly textured and engaging” (The Boston Globe) tale that e...

  • Love in the Afternoon synopsis, comments

    Love in the Afternoon

    Karen Hawkins

    A woman with a legendary green thumb, a man living in an emotional desert, and a small boy unable to connect with others. Can the three of them, with a little help from the charmed...

  • Nineteen Minutes synopsis, comments

    Nineteen Minutes

    Jodi Picoult

    Jodi Picoult, bestselling author of My Sister's Keeper and Small Great Things pens her most riveting book yet, with a startling and poignant story about the devastating aftermath o...

  • The Storyteller synopsis, comments

    The Storyteller

    Jodi Picoult

    An astonishing novel about redemption and forgiveness from the “amazingly talented writer” (HuffPost) and #1 New York Times bestselling author Jodi Picoult.Some stories live foreve...

  • Never Change synopsis, comments

    Never Change

    Elizabeth Berg

    You know people like me. I'm the one who sat in a folding chair out in the hall selling tickets to the prom but never going, the one everybody liked but no one wanted to be with. ...

  • Handle with Care synopsis, comments

    Handle with Care

    Jodi Picoult

    When Willow is born with severe osteogenesis imperfecta, her parents are devastatedshe will suffer hundreds of broken bones as she grows, a lifetime of pain. In this provocative st...

  • The Flying Circus synopsis, comments

    The Flying Circus

    Susan Crandall

    The awardwinning, national bestselling author of Whistling Past the Graveyard sends an unlikely trio on an exhilarating adventure high above the American Midwest of the 1920s in a ...

  • Blood Like Magic synopsis, comments

    Blood Like Magic

    Liselle Sambury

    “High stakes, big heart, and lots of Black Girl Magic…unputdownable.” Aiden Thomas, New York Times bestselling author of Cemetery BoysA rich, dark urban fantasy debut following a t...

  • The World That We Knew synopsis, comments

    The World That We Knew

    Alice Hoffman

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER LONGLISTED FOR THE ANDREW CARNEGIE MEDAL On the brink of World War II, with the Nazis tightening their grip on Berlin, a mother’s act of courage and love...

  • Time and Again synopsis, comments

    Time and Again

    Jack Finney

    The 50th anniversary edition of the beloved classic that Stephen King has called “THE great timetravel story.” Featuring a brandnew introduction by the New York Times bestselling a...

  • The Rules of Magic synopsis, comments

    The Rules of Magic

    Alice Hoffman

    An instant New York Times bestseller and Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick from beloved author Alice Hoffmanthe spellbinding prequel to Practical Magic.Find your magic.For the Owens...

  • Change of Heart synopsis, comments

    Change of Heart

    Jodi Picoult

    The beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author and “master of the craft of storytelling” (Associated Press) weaves a spellbinding tale of a mother’s tragic loss and one man’s cha...

  • Local Girls synopsis, comments

    Local Girls

    Alice Hoffman

    The New York Times bestselling author of The Rules of Magic is at her haunting, thoughtprovoking best with these interconnected stories about a Long Island fami...

  • Say When synopsis, comments

    Say When

    Elizabeth Berg

    Ellen, he thought, and the name seemed to him to hold everything he might possibly want to say to her....He looked at her lying on her side of the bed, looked too at the space she ...