Gay books treat, RA complete, Lit hits the street

As Lewis Carroll’s Alice so aptly points out, “What is the use of a book...without pictures or conversations?” Welcome to RA Crossroads, where books, movies, music, and other media converge and whole-collection reader’s advisory service goes where it may. In this inaugural column, Sarah Addison Allen’s Garden Spells leads me down a winding path.

Allen’s Garden Spells is a charming blend of chick-lit, Southern fiction, and magical realism. The Waverley women have been legendary residents of Bascom, NC, for generations. Claire Waverley runs a successful catering business, sells the odd magical potion, and tends the family’s special garden—the central feature of which is an apple tree with particular plans of its own.

Claire’s world tilts when a sexy guy who literally sparks purple flashes moves next door and her renegade sister shows up with a daughter—and danger—in tow. I confess that I was caught from the first sentence, folding down pages and rereading sections as I went. Garden Spells is a book that makes you happy to be a reader. I have suggested it many times, and everyone has come back enchanted and wanting more.

So what works well with its captivating blend of romance, magic, and bewitching fun? The first book I thought of was Alice Hoffman’s Practical Magic. It is wondrously descriptive of the magical by-products of emotions—singed cuffs on one man, hot elbows on another. And since details like that are part of what makes Garden Spells so delightful, it’s good to see them again in a different book.

Practical Magic was made into a movie, and while Hollywood did away with some of the subtle notes of the story, it ramped up the visual impact and introduced a fabulous soundtrack. Stevie Nicks features heavily, which is fitting, but Joni Mitchell is there, too. The movie works because it allows readers to sink into the visual world both Allen and Hoffman so effortlessly evoke, and it matches the mood of Garden Spells as well, an effervescent and willingly charmed feeling that is a big part of the book’s allure.