SKU: 86345330925

Keeping the House

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Keeping the HouseBy: Ellen Baker Set in the conformist 1950s and reaching back to span two world wars, Ellen Bakers 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 Ottos How to Make an American Quilt in its intimate portrayal of womens lives, and reminiscent of novels by Elizabeth Berg and Anne Tyler, Keeping the House is a rich tapestry of

By: Ellen Baker     
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 Elizabeth Berg and Anne Tyler, Keeping the House is a rich tapestry of a novel that introduces a wonderful new fiction writer.

When Dolly Magnuson moves to Pine Rapids, Wisconsin, in 1950, she discovers all too soon that making marriage work is harder than it looks in the pages of the Ladies’ Home Journal. Dolly tries to adapt to her new life by keeping the house, supporting her husband’s career, and fretting about dinner menus. She even gives up her dream of flying an airplane, trying instead to fit in at the stuffy Ladies Aid quilting circle. Soon, though, her loneliness and restless imagination are seized by the vacant house on the hill. As Dolly’s life and marriage become increasingly difficult, she begins to lose herself in piecing together the story of three generations of Mickelson men and women: Wilma Mickelson, who came to Pine Rapids as a new bride in 1896 and fell in love with a man who was not her husband; her oldest son, Jack, who fought as a Marine in the trenches of World War I; and Jack’s son, JJ, a troubled veteran of World War II, who returns home to discover Dolly in his grandparents’ house.

As the crisis in Dolly’s marriage escalates, she not only escapes into JJ’s stories of his family’s past but finds in them parallels to her own life. As Keeping the House moves back and forth in time, it eloquently explores themes of wartime heroism and passionate love, of the struggles of men’s struggles with fatherhood and war and of women’s conflicts with issues of conformity, identity, forbidden dreams, and love.

Beautifully written and atmospheric, Keeping the House illuminates the courage it takes to shape and reshape a life, and the difficulty of ever knowing the truth about another person’s desires. Keeping the House is an unforgettable novel about small-town life and big matters of the heart.

Advance praise for Keeping the House
“Ellen Baker’s first novel is a wonder! Keeping the House is a great big juicy family saga, a romantic page-turner with genuine characters written with a perfect sense of history, time, and place. Her portrayal of the American housewife is hilarious and heartbreaking. I couldn’t have liked it more!”
–Fannie Flagg, author of Can’t Wait to Get to Heaven

“Ellen Baker’s first novel, Keeping the House, is a quilt that grids a small Midwestern town in the middle of the last century. Under this writer’s deft hands, each square is a story, a mystery, an indiscretion, a tale of the great house and grand family who once ruled there. Even more, it captures the roles of women then: both the living embodiments of demure ideals, and those who couldn’t fit the pattern. Edith Wharton’s novels of domestic despair and display come to mind with each page.”
–Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of The Deep End of the Ocean

“A born storyteller, Ellen Baker has written an enthralling family saga filled with three generations of memorable characters and capturing the dreams and frustrations of twentieth-century women in wonderful, spot-on historical detail.”
–Faith Sullivan, author of Gardenias and The Cape Ann

“Ellen Baker has written the novel I’ve been waiting to read for a very long time. It’s the book you want to curl up with, the book you rush home to, the book you wish you’d written. In Keeping the House, she serves up the complexities of family relationships, the anguish of victims of wars, the innermost thoughts of women, and the social mores of the past. Seasoned with mysteries that kept me devouring pages, this is one huge gourmet feast of a book for readers to savor. I look forward to every delicious book this author writes.”
–Bev Marshall, author of Walking Through Shadows and Right as Rain
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SKU: 86345330925

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Pamela
Bozeman, US
★★★★★ 5
Best mug warmer I’ve ever had!
Color: Black
This does what I had hoped my other two mug warmers would do. Actually keep my coffee hot. I also love that I can set the timer so that I don’t accidentally leave it on. Additionally, my other two warmers were activated by setting the cup down on the warmer, which meant that if somebody sat something else beside a coffee cup on it, it burned it. And that did happen. This one is only hot when you turn it on. I can also change the temperature settings and choose how long I want it to be on up to 12 hours. I definitely will buy this again for another room in the house.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2026
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adg4936
Birmingham, US
★★★★★ 5
Simple and ir works well
Color: White
Keeps my beverages hot. I like that is has 3 temperatures to select.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 9, 2026
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JERRY ANN POWERS
Lake Worth, US
★★★★★ 5
Excellent price quality and delivery. ✅
Color: Black
Love this coffee warmer. It’s perfect in every way. Not cheap junk. It is good quality. The heating base is large enough to hold my large coffee mug.. It has four rubber feet on the bottom for stability, about a quarter size digital temperature viewing, yes, it does heat up fast. I love everything about it. It is the best $20 purchase I have made in years ❤️ I highly recommend this one if you’re looking for one to keep your coffee warm 😎
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Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2026
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Roger
Phoenix, US
★★★★★ 4
Nice warmer.
Color: Black
This thing gets hot! I've had one incident with it. It was on without anything showing on the LED panel. Went to move it and got an unpleasant surprise... Sorry, but one star off for that. Other than this incident it works just fine. Keeps my mug of whatever warm or hot as I select. Recommend it. I'm sure the incident I suffered was a fluke.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2026
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Vanessa Grossman
Waukegan, US
★★★★★ 5
Daily Must-Have for Working at Home!
Color: Black
The KitchekShop Coffee Warmer is an item I use daily. I had an old warmer that had a switch on it and the light burnt out. I would always forget to turn it off and sometimes it would be on overnight while I slept or when I left my home office. Yikes! Fire hazard, right?! So I purchased this one and I love it. You can see a little review I made. This has a display to show the temperature setting on it while it's on. It has a power button, a timer button for up to 12 hours, and a temperature button. The timer is awesome because I can set it anywhere between 1-12 hours to automatically shut off and not worry about it. I usually set it for the time I KNOW I will be leaving my office so I can't forget about it. I also love the 4 temperature settings. I typically keep it at the second setting of 145 F which is the perfect temp for me. Sometimes, if I am bringing on a beverage that already started to cool a bit, I will bring the temp up to 167 F or 185 F to get it warmer faster, then set it back at 145 F. And once in awhile, if I only have a little bit of beverage left, I will be it at the lowest temp of 131 F so that it's not scalding hot when I drink it. It doesn't take up a lot of space and it's best used with mugs that have a flat bottom. If you have a concave bottom mug, the heat doesn't distribut as evenly on the mug and it won't heat as quickly and evenly. This is no fault of the product, it's science. I will say that I had an issue with the first warmer I purchased. It was not heating up as it should. Customer service was phenomenal and sent me a replacement and the replacement has been perfect. Even if this one goes out, I would continue replacing it because of the functionality, appearance, and quality.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 12, 2026

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