{"title":"Ellen Baker","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"keeping-the-house-book-ellen-baker-9780812977844","title":"Keeping the House","description":"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 \u003ci\u003eHow to Make an American Quilt \u003c\/i\u003ein its intimate portrayal of women's lives, and reminiscent of novels by Elizabeth Berg and Anne Tyler, \u003ci\u003eKeeping the House\u003c\/i\u003e is a rich tapestry of a novel that introduces a wonderful new fiction writer. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhen 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 \u003ci\u003eLadies' Home Journal\u003c\/i\u003e. 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As \u003ci\u003eKeeping the House \u003c\/i\u003emoves 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eBeautifully written and atmospheric, \u003ci\u003eKeeping the House\u003c\/i\u003e illuminates the courage it takes to shape and reshape a life, and the difficulty of ever knowing the truth about another person's desires. \u003ci\u003eKeeping the House\u003c\/i\u003e is an unforgettable novel about small-town life and big matters of the heart. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAdvance praise for \u003ci\u003eKeeping the House\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEllen 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 \u003cbr\u003e-Fannie Flagg, author of \u003ci\u003eCan't Wait to Get to Heaven\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEllen 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.\u003cbr\u003e-Jacquelyn Mitchard, author of \u003ci\u003eThe Deep End of the Ocean\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eA 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.\u003cbr\u003e-Faith Sullivan, author of \u003ci\u003eGardenias\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eThe Cape Ann\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eEllen 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 \u003ci\u003eKeeping the House\u003c\/i\u003e, 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.\u003cbr\u003e-Bev Marshall, author of \u003ci\u003eWalking Through Shadows \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eRight as Rain\u003c\/i\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrom the Hardcover edition.\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49723784069393,"sku":"CIN081297784XG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50267683193105,"sku":"CIN081297784XVG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51008003801361,"sku":"NIN9780812977844","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51416429003025,"sku":"CIN081297784XA","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/081297784X.jpg?v=1751264487"},{"product_id":"hidden-life-of-cecily-larson-book-ellen-baker-9780063351196","title":"The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson","description":"“A family secret, a DNA test, a journey as rich and colorful as the early-day circus itself. Through Cecily Larson’s hidden life, Ellen Baker tenderly examines personal determination, lost love, family ties, and our innate need to discover our own truth.” — Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours and Before and After  Orphan Train meets Before We Were Yours meets Water for Elephants in this compelling historical fiction family saga of survival, love, and the families we make.  In 1924, four-year-old Cecily Larson’s mother reluctantly drops her off at an orphanage in Chicago, promising to be back once she’s made enough money to support both Cecily and herself. But she never returns, and shortly after high-spirited Cecily turns seven, she is sold to a traveling circus, a world of performance and secrets, to perform as the “little sister” to glamorous bareback rider Isabelle DuMonde. With Isabelle and the rest of the circus, Cecily finally feels she’s found the family she craves. 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Sweeping through a long period of contemporary history, The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson is an immersive, compelling, and entertaining family drama centered around one remarkable woman and her determination to survive.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49746023252241,"sku":"NGR9780063351196","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49931041505553,"sku":"CIN0063351196G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":50983237255441,"sku":"NIN9780063351196","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51444726137105,"sku":"GOR014284068","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":52102721274129,"sku":"CIN0063351196VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53340758638865,"sku":"CIN0063351196A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53440231735569,"sku":"GOR014921894","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0063351196.jpg?v=1750973403"},{"product_id":"keeping-the-house-book-ellen-baker-9781400066353","title":"Keeping the House","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":49754171408657,"sku":"CIN1400066352A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49763773251857,"sku":"CIN1400066352G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51684138516753,"sku":"GOR010825774","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51758451425553,"sku":"CIN1400066352VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1400066352.jpg?v=1750755501"},{"product_id":"hidden-life-of-cecily-larson-book-ellen-baker-9780063380714","title":"The Hidden Life of Cecily Larson","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"A family secret, a DNA test, a journey as rich and colorful as the early-day circus itself. 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But as the years go by, the cracks in her little world begin to show. And when teenage Cecily meets and falls in love with a young roustabout named Lucky, she finds her life thrown onto an entirely unexpected--and dangerous--course.\u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eIn 2015, Cecily is now 94 and living a quiet life in Minnesota, with her daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandson. But when her family decides to surprise her with an at-home DNA test, the unexpected results not only bring to light the tragic love story that Cecily has kept hidden for decades but also throw into question everything about the family she's raised and claimed as her own for nearly seventy years. 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Through Cecily Larson’s hidden life, Ellen Baker tenderly examines personal determination, lost love, family ties, and our innate need to discover our own truth.” — Lisa Wingate, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Before We Were Yours and Before and After  Orphan Train meets Before We Were Yours meets Water for Elephants in this compelling historical fiction family saga of survival, love, and the families we make.  In 1924, four-year-old Cecily Larson’s mother reluctantly drops her off at an orphanage in Chicago, promising to be back once she’s made enough money to support both Cecily and herself. But she never returns, and shortly after high-spirited Cecily turns seven, she is sold to a traveling circus, a world of performance and secrets, to perform as the “little sister” to glamorous bareback rider Isabelle DuMonde. With Isabelle and the rest of the circus, Cecily finally feels she’s found the family she craves. 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Lindy has the summer of a lifetime planned at her family’s beloved cottage in Summerland Cove, Maine, where she’s spent summers all her life and where she and her husband David met as teenagers. She’s slated big events three weekends in a row: David’s fiftieth birthday party, her parents’ fiftieth anniversary party, and her oldest daughter Hailey’s wedding. But when David doesn’t show up for his own party, everything about the life they’ve created together is thrown into question, as the shattered family sets out looking for him. Has he been in an accident? God forbid, been the victim of a crime? Or is it something more cliché—a midlife crisis, an affair? Surely, he’ll show up for his beloved daughter’s wedding—won’t he?   The agonizing days tick by and still no David. Lindy’s four nearly grown children are panicked. Lindy struggles to remain calm, even as long-buried details of the family’s past begin to surface, offering distressing clues. 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She's slated big events three weekends in a row: David's fiftieth birthday party, her parents' fiftieth anniversary party, and her oldest daughter Hailey's wedding. But when David doesn't show up for his own party, everything about the life they've created together is thrown into question, as the shattered family sets out looking for him. Has he been in an accident? God forbid, been the victim of a crime? Or is it something more cliché--a midlife crisis, an affair? Surely, he'll show up for his beloved daughter's wedding--won't he? \u003c\/p\u003e \u003cp\u003eThe agonizing days tick by and still no David. Lindy's four nearly grown children are panicked. Lindy struggles to remain calm, even as long-buried details of the family's past begin to surface, offering distressing clues. 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