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113th out of 171 books
—
159 voters
Keeping the House
by
Ellen Baker (Goodreads Author)
Set in the conformist 1950s and reaching back to span two world wars, Ellen Baker’s superb novel is the story of a newlywed who falls in love with a grand abandoned house and begins to unravel dark secrets woven through the generations of a family. Like Whitney Otto’s How to Make an American Quilt in its intimate portrayal of women’s lives, and reminiscent of novels by Eli...more
Paperback, 560 pages
Published
July 15th 2008
by Random House Trade Paperbacks
(first published 2007)
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This novel is essentially about marriage in the 50s, and how it was impacted by both world wars as well as by conventions of the time. The story itself started out slowly for me. I thought it was a little simplistic, even for a "simpler" time. One of the more interesting features was excerpts from magazines such as "Good Housekeeping" from the early '50s, giving advice about how to keep the house and the husband happy. The story eventually picked up its' pace, with several family secrets exposed...more
Young immigrant Knute Mickelson may not have founded the town of Pine Rapids, Wisconsin, but the sawmill he built north of the small town and the family dynasty created after his marriage to an ambitious New York woman surely were the driving forces in the growth and development of the forested northwest Wisconsin village. In her debut novel, Keeping the House, Ellen Baker recounts the multi-generational family saga of the Mickelsons as told through the experiences of Dolly Magnuson, a new resi...more
Ellen Baker is from Superior, Wisconsin (across the bridge from Duluth) and my mom cleans her teeth. This is her first novel, impressively published by Random House, about a housewife in the 1950's.
Set in Wisconsin, this is the story of two families: the Magnusons and the Mickelsons.
Dolly and Byron Magnuson just moved to Pine Rapids, WI. It is 1950, and Dolly is desperately trying to be the perfect wife. While working on a quilt with the town's old biddies, she learns of the other family.
The Mickelsons lived in Pine Rapids also. Wilma and John were married in 1896 and lived in a grand house in the small town. They had four children, two of whom served in WWI and two grandchildren, one of w...more
Dolly and Byron Magnuson just moved to Pine Rapids, WI. It is 1950, and Dolly is desperately trying to be the perfect wife. While working on a quilt with the town's old biddies, she learns of the other family.
The Mickelsons lived in Pine Rapids also. Wilma and John were married in 1896 and lived in a grand house in the small town. They had four children, two of whom served in WWI and two grandchildren, one of w...more
I liked this book.
It is sort of a cross between "How to Make and American Quilt" and "Drowning Ruth." As in "How to Make and American Quilt," there are intermittent quilting scenes where one of the story-lines unfolds. And it is like "Drowning Ruth" somewhat because it is post Great War and that influences much of what happens, but mostly because I spent a good deal of my reading time trying to figure out where, exactly, in Wisconsin that book was set.
I can imagine Oprah taking a shine to this...more
It is sort of a cross between "How to Make and American Quilt" and "Drowning Ruth." As in "How to Make and American Quilt," there are intermittent quilting scenes where one of the story-lines unfolds. And it is like "Drowning Ruth" somewhat because it is post Great War and that influences much of what happens, but mostly because I spent a good deal of my reading time trying to figure out where, exactly, in Wisconsin that book was set.
I can imagine Oprah taking a shine to this...more
I thoroughly enjoyed reading KEEPING THE HOUSE! With themes one can relate to today and characters you cannot forget, this is a wonderful debut novel from an author I can't wait to read more from. Ellen Baker's prose is smooth and her timing is perfect as she seamlessly moves back and forth following two families - the Mickelsons struggling with the effects of WWI and WWII during 1900 to 1950 and the Magnusons struggling with the ideals of marital and household perfection in 1950's. Entirely eng...more
Two families bound by one "cursed" house.
Lonesome in a new town while her husband works selling cars, newlywed Dolly Magnuson follows the "rules" for married women found in the popular press of the 1950's and quoted throughout the book. She works hard to keep a pleasant home for her husband and takes on all the responsibility for making her marriage work. Despite her sincere efforts, she feels lonesome. Her growing interest in the beautiful abandoned Mickelson home across the street provides her...more
Lonesome in a new town while her husband works selling cars, newlywed Dolly Magnuson follows the "rules" for married women found in the popular press of the 1950's and quoted throughout the book. She works hard to keep a pleasant home for her husband and takes on all the responsibility for making her marriage work. Despite her sincere efforts, she feels lonesome. Her growing interest in the beautiful abandoned Mickelson home across the street provides her...more
Two families bound by one "cursed" house.
Lonesome in a new town while her husband works selling cars, newlywed Dolly Magnuson follows the "rules" for married women found in the popular press of the 1950's and quoted throughout the book. She works hard to keep a pleasant home for her husband and takes on all the responsibility for making her marriage work. Despite her sincere efforts, she feels lonesome. Her growing interest in the beautiful abandoned Mickelson home across the street provides her...more
Lonesome in a new town while her husband works selling cars, newlywed Dolly Magnuson follows the "rules" for married women found in the popular press of the 1950's and quoted throughout the book. She works hard to keep a pleasant home for her husband and takes on all the responsibility for making her marriage work. Despite her sincere efforts, she feels lonesome. Her growing interest in the beautiful abandoned Mickelson home across the street provides her...more
Keeping the House by Ellen Baker is about a newlywed who moves into a new town where her husband opens a car dealership with an Army buddy in 1950. Dolly beings her married life there and starts to make friends while trying to please her husband, which is not always so easy. Byron is a veteran of WWII who continues to build a wall around him that Dolly has a difficult time penetrating. With the help of popular magazines such as the Ladies’ Home Journal, she strives to make her marriage work with...more
I found this book to be kind of “eh,” not really worth writing home about (or writing a glowing review about!). The best parts of it were the quotes at the beginning of most chapters: old quotes from old Good Housekeeping or similar mags about keeping a house or nurturing a marriage from the 1940s or ‘50s – funny.
Quick summary: Dolly moves with her husband Byron to Pine Rapids, WI as newlyweds, and she struggles to find herself and to find friends while her husband is out working all day. She i...more
Quick summary: Dolly moves with her husband Byron to Pine Rapids, WI as newlyweds, and she struggles to find herself and to find friends while her husband is out working all day. She i...more
This novel follows Dolly Magnuson, a young housewife who has just settled with her husband in a small Wisconsin town in 1950. Dolly is struggling with the boredom and convention of the housewife role she thought she wanted so badly when she becomes enchanted by the grand old Mickelson house and the story of its inhabitants over three generations, starting just before the 20th century and ending in the 1950s.
The Mickelson's history is rich and tragic, and has many twists and turns over the decad...more
The Mickelson's history is rich and tragic, and has many twists and turns over the decad...more
This multi-generational story spans from the late 1800s to 1950. Starting with Wilma, who gives up her concert pianist dreams to marry a Norwegian who's made his wealth in the lumber industry of a fictionalized Wisconsin town (Pine Rapids), the story goes through the Great War, WWII, and ends in 1950. Dol comes to Pine Rapids as a newly married housewife who fits perfectly into the opening question of Betty Friedan's, The Feminine Mystique. "As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched s...more
I loved this nostalgic story that chronicles the story of a newlywed fifties housewife. Well written, poignant and endearing, this novel develops into a lovely family saga. Dolly Magnuson is naive, sweet and has nothing more in her life than planning her dinner menus. She thinks her marriage will work if she looks great, cooks great and maintains her house—these things are, after all, what are expected of a married woman. Dolly always wears her best dresses and heels for her husband and ensures...more
This is the second time I've read Keeping The House, which is historical fiction. I really enjoyed the characters, felt like they were people I know. The way Baker was able to describe the feelings of vulnerability and expectation in marriage were so close to reality. The plot kept the pages moving for me.
Our book club read this and had a hoot with the discussion. Ellen Baker was part of it via speakerphone. It was utterly delightful to have the "creator of the world" in which we had all been su...more
Our book club read this and had a hoot with the discussion. Ellen Baker was part of it via speakerphone. It was utterly delightful to have the "creator of the world" in which we had all been su...more
Oct 21, 2010
Adam
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
No one at all ever
Shelves:
audiobooks-a-z
Post listen review
How do I sum up what I thought about this book? I am going to have to turn to Kristen Chynoweth and Idina Menzel for the answer to that. “What is this feeling? Fervid as a flame, Does it have a name? Yes! Loathing. Unadulterated loathing”.
I hated every second of this book for a plethora of reasons but here are just a few for you.
Stagey whispering/shouting in the narration
The narrator has an irritating voice and reads the book as if she is on a stage in front of a large audience...more
How do I sum up what I thought about this book? I am going to have to turn to Kristen Chynoweth and Idina Menzel for the answer to that. “What is this feeling? Fervid as a flame, Does it have a name? Yes! Loathing. Unadulterated loathing”.
I hated every second of this book for a plethora of reasons but here are just a few for you.
Stagey whispering/shouting in the narration
The narrator has an irritating voice and reads the book as if she is on a stage in front of a large audience...more
This was one of those multi-generational books that I like to read, following a family living in Wisconsin spanning from 1896 to 1950. They were the wealthy ones in their small town and lived high up on a hill in a stately mansion rumored to be cursed.
What I thought was fun was that the author would then shift the reader to a newlywed couple, married in 1950, who recently moved to the same town. As the wife is working to get the whole 'marriage thing' figured out, and realizing that everyone in...more
What I thought was fun was that the author would then shift the reader to a newlywed couple, married in 1950, who recently moved to the same town. As the wife is working to get the whole 'marriage thing' figured out, and realizing that everyone in...more
Jan 18, 2010
Rosina Lippi
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
fiction,
reviewed-here
Baker's first novel is a multi-generation family saga set in small town Wisconsin. In 1896, Wilma comes to the rough and backwoods town of Pine Rapids as the alarmed new bride of a lumber baron's first son, John Mickelson. Wilma is already regretting her jump into matrimony when she gets off the train, to promptly fall in love, first with her brother-in-law Gust and then with the beautiful home on a hill that was now hers. Set in counterpoint to Wilma's unhappy trial by marriage and motherhood i...more
Jan 08, 2008
Kit
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
inner-beach,
peanut-m-ms
This is not a *bad* book: it's a quick read and the chapter headings quoting marriage advice from circa 1940s Good Housekeeping magazines are kinda fun. There's a lot of American history here, as the family story spans something like 1895 to 1950, but a number of the (many) characters are just flat and I found the structure (weaving back and forth between time and characters' POV) sometimes wearisome.
Sep 26, 2007
Mindy Sue
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
those who love history and domesticity!
This is a great novel about a housewife from 1950 who falls in love with a grand house in the town that her and her husband had just moved to. I love this book because it talks about domestic issues from 1950 as well as the generations before. With a great story line and flash backs from characters, it's a book that teaches me history as well as greatens my love for my research into the retro housewife.
Okay, I LOVED this book. It was SO freaking good and I raced through it, even though it was longish (over 500 pages). I literally finished it all in one plane ride. I didn't expect to like it because it seemed like it might be a little domestic/quaint for me. The characters were great, the interwoven plot lines were great... I just thought this book was awesome. I've been thinking about it for days.
I decided to read this book because of my daughter writing a masters thesis on the roles of women in the 1950s, as set forth through Ladies Home Journal and Good Housekeeping. Since these were magazines often found in my childhood home during the 1960s (since Mom was a bride from the 1950s), I was especially curious to see what are the conceptions as opposed to what I remembered.
A young bride finds that making marriage work is much more than her "Bible" for being a good wife, the Ladies Home Jo...more
A young bride finds that making marriage work is much more than her "Bible" for being a good wife, the Ladies Home Jo...more
Sometimes reading, and enjoying a book, are all about your present state of mind when you start the book. I purchased this book from The Literary Guild over a year ago and it just sat on my self as I read other things that seemed to pique my interest more than this book did. Then, recently, I found this book to be just what I was in the mood to read.
Keeping the House takes the reader back in time from the late 1890's to 1950. Told in a non-linear fashion, the story anchors with the story of Doll...more
Keeping the House takes the reader back in time from the late 1890's to 1950. Told in a non-linear fashion, the story anchors with the story of Doll...more
I love thoughts like this: "...because she had read somewhere that nothing says 'Happy Home' to a husband like his smiling wife in an apron and lovely dress bidding him come to the table where she has a colorful, balanced, hot meal waiting." I'm sure that was a wonderful way to keep house more than half a century ago and by that standard, my home is nothing remotely happy, but I am glad that such notions are not the standard today. I would have a difficult time matching aprons to dresses and mak...more
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This novel is an easy read, yet it isn't fluff like so much chick lit out there. I was able to knock out nearly 300 pages in one evening after work, stopping to make dinner and watch a show. I was particularly curious what would happen with one story line and would get caught up in the next 50 or so pages waiting for it to come up again (the book jumps around between the late 19th century and 1950).
While one revelation in the story was completely out of left field and pretty soapy, I otherwise...more
While one revelation in the story was completely out of left field and pretty soapy, I otherwise...more
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Mar 22, 2010
Lora King
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
historical-mystery,
historical-fiction
I absolutely LOVED this book. Set between the late 1800's and 1950, Dolly is a newlywed but stiffled by 1950's ideal of the perfect housewife. She becomes fascinated by the Mickelson's house, the largest house in town that has been abandoned. After hearing bit's and pieces of stories of the family who lived in thehouse, she starts to piece together the dark happenings that stretch through 2 generations of that family. I didn't see some of the twist and turns coming, I thought it would end differ...more
I listened to this book whilst training for half marathon. It started out a bit slow, but picked up in the middle and had a strong finish. I enjoyed the format, jumping back and forth across three generations of family and neighbors in Pine Rapids, Michigan. I was never confused as to what year it was because each chapter thankfully begins with a date and place to set the scene. The characters, who were more twisted than one would expect, kept me company on my long runs. Dolly makes for an excel...more
My book club is reading this book for our next meeting and I was going to skip it. After all, I’m a stay-at-home mom living a very traditional lifestyle. I really didn’t think I’d enjoy another book about the life of a housewife, with the cooking, cleaning, finance managing, mothering, wifing, church grouping, loss of dreams, infidelity on his or her part, &c. What kind of escape is that??
However, when a forward-thinking friend (thanks Nergis!) told me this book had so much more to offer I d...more
However, when a forward-thinking friend (thanks Nergis!) told me this book had so much more to offer I d...more
I always seem to enjoy historical fiction and this story is no exception. When a newlywed moves from her hometown with her clueless new husband, she is lonely and bored, even though she does everything she believes a wife in the 1950s should. She joins a quilting group of older women from her church and during quilting sessions they snipe about the neighbors and the past. Dolly becomes interested in an old house from a troubled family of means that left the area and she visits the house, quickly...more
OK, I have to preface this review with some personal information. 30 pages from the end of this book, my dog was poisoned and died. So, I don't even know how accurate or good this review is going to be. Bear with me.
I'm going to simply state that I enjoyed this book. It fell into my hands during a blissful wandering of my library. The plot intrigued me and the setting was close to home, so it made its way into my book bag.
A 3.5 star rating would be more accurate. I enjoyed it. I loved the quote...more
I'm going to simply state that I enjoyed this book. It fell into my hands during a blissful wandering of my library. The plot intrigued me and the setting was close to home, so it made its way into my book bag.
A 3.5 star rating would be more accurate. I enjoyed it. I loved the quote...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Loved this book! | 3 | 24 | Dec 10, 2012 09:24am |
Ellen Baker has worked as a living history interpreter, a museum curator, and a bookseller and event coordinator at an independent bookstore. Her first novel, KEEPING THE HOUSE, won the 2008 Great Lakes Book Award; her second novel is I GAVE MY HEART TO KNOW THIS. She lives in Minnesota.
More about Ellen Baker...
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“Homes should mean something to us humans. They are a basic instinct. A home, with a life that centers only on food and sleep, is not really a home, it's a house. Beauty and graciousness, joy of living, being used in every part, these are the things that make a house a home. (chapter header quote from Popular Home Decorations, 1940)”
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“Flying lessons? That's not very wifely.”
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