If You Like Alice Hoffman...

updated 4/09

Garden Spells  by Sarah Addison Allen
In a garden surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind a small, quiet house in an even smaller town, is an apple tree that is rumored to bear a very special sort of fruit. In her luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of that enchanted tree, and the extraordinary people who tend it.

Like Water for Chocolate  by Laura Esquivel
Earthy, magical and utterly charming, this tale of family life in turn-of-the-century Mexico became a bestselling phenomenon with its winning blend of poignant romance and bittersweet wit. The tyrannical owner of De la Garza ranch, Mama Elena, chops onions at the kitchen table in her final days of pregnancy. While still in her mother's womb, her daughter to be weeps so violently she causes an early labor. This early encounter with food soon becomes a way of life, and Tita grows up to be a master chef.

Chocolat  by Joanne Harris
Vianne Rocher and her 6-year-old daughter, Anouk, arrive in the small village of Lansquenet-sous-Tannes – "a blip on the fast road between Toulouse and Bourdeaux" – in February, during the carnival. Three days later, Vianne opens a luxuriant chocolate shop crammed with the most tempting of confections and mouth-watering variety of hot chocolate drinks. It's Lent, the shop is opposite the church and open on Sundays, and Francis Reynaud, the austere parish priest, is livid. But, one by one, the locals begin to succumb to Vianne's concoctions; however, certain villagers still side with Reynaud. So, when Vianne announces a Grand Festival of Chocolate commencing on Easter Sunday, it's all-out war between church and chocolate, good and evil, love and dogma.

Winter's Tale  by Mark Helprin
One night in winter, Peter Lake, orphan and master-mechanic, attempts to rob a fortress-like mansion on the Upper West Side in New York City. Though he thinks that the house is empty, the daughter of the house is home. Thus begins the love between a middle-aged Irish burglar and young Beverly Penn, who is dying.  Peter–a simple, uneducated man–is driven to stop time and bring back the dead because of a love that, at first, he does not fully understand. His great struggle in a city ever alight with its own energy is one of the most beautiful and extraordinary stories of American literature.

A Prayer for Owen Meany  by John Irving
In the summer of 1953, two 11-year-old boys – best friends – are playing in a Little League baseball game in Gravesend, New Hampshire. One of the boys hits a foul ball that kills the other boy’s mother. The boy who hits the ball doesn’t believe in accidents; Owen Meany believes he is God’s instrument. What happens to Owen, after that 1953 foul ball, is extraordinary and terrifying.

Animal Dreams  by Barbara Kingsolver
Hallie Nodine fights for justice in Nicaragua while her sister, Codi, returns to Arizona to confront her dying father, as myths, dreams and flashbacks blend to examine life's commitments.

The Time Traveler's Wife  by Audrey Niffenegger
Clare and Henry have known each other since Clare was six and Henry was 36, and were married when Clare was 23 and Henry 31. Impossible but true, because Henry's genetic clock periodically resets. He finds himself misplaced in time, pulled to moments of emotional gravity in his life, past and future. His disappearances are spontaneous, alternately harrowing and amusing as the story unfolds from both points of view. Their attempt to live normal lives is threatened by something they can neither prevent nor control, making their story intensely moving and entirely unforgettable.