The Practice House

The characters struck me as shallow. That may have been intentional: the characters as ungrounded as the dirt in Kansas literally blowing away. It still resulted in me not feeling any particular sympathy for any of the characters and their plight. One character this inconsistency showed strongly for was Ellie. Maybe it was just her way of showing disapproval for Aldine, but when they were in Kansas, Ellie was uptight and sanctimonious. In California, she was a completely different person. Not just happier, which is understandable, but almost unconnected from who she had been.The book used multiple viewpoints enough that this could have been handled by giving us just a hint of her perspective. Instead, we just see her change to a show more completely different person.
It's a pity, because Ellie's story of building a new life for her family despite hardships would have made for a better centerpiece than Aldine and Ansel's romance.

The plot was predictable and seemed to just plot along its course without the characters doing much to help it along. Aldine was especially disappointing. She seemed like she would be a compelling character who took charge of her own life, but once she got to Kansas, she just drifted along.

The relationships are hollow. As far as I can tell, Aldine falls for Ansel for little better reason than that he's an attractive and in her vicinity, the same reason Ansel and his son Clare both fall for her.

I didn't hate the book, but I was glad to be finished with it. show less

This was a compelling story of two sisters who migrate to the United States. With a focus on one sister and her experiences living in Kansas and the family she meets. The author has created very believable characters and placed them in a time period with immense challenges. It reminded me in a way of "The Grapes of Wrath" yet not so dark. It is a very good story that I'll remember for a long time.

All 109 chapters of the most sad depressing story I have ever read. (Or rather listened to - did the Audible Version) Had hoped for a better ending but as it was it just ended up as it began. Nothing exciting ever happens in 1930's Kansas other than the dust storms, and like one of those dust storms, this book seemed to go everywhere and nowhere. In the end nobody was really better off than they were in the beginning, they were just different and in a few cases worse. If it was bad and could happen, it happened, and just when you thought the story was going to take a turn for the better they would get hit with some fresh new catastrophe. Historically though, it was very accurate. In fact I started watching the Ken Burns Documentary show more about the Dust Bowl while reading this and everything in the story lines up quite well. If you're looking for a happy ending go look elsewhere. show less

This is a 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟book. After a couple of middle-of-the-nights of either insomnia or "I just had to read this book" I spent this evening finishing it. It's just terrific even to the extent you can guess what's coming. It's slow and methodical but I never once wanted to quit reading. It's just that well-written. Read it and enjoy.

This is a story about a dysfunctional household during the Great Depression - the home that was Ellie Price’s “practice house” as she transitioned from a stubborn romantic girl to a determined successful woman.

Ellie fights for what she wants. She wanted freedom, so she took a job as a waitress at Harvey House. She wanted romance and a home, and married Ansel Price - a good choice until the Depression hit. She wanted better health for her youngest daughter and fought until the family relocated to California. She wanted independence and a decent life - and opened a successful diner. Ellie is the true heroine in this story. Her marriage to Ansel was an on-the-job “practice house.”

Ellie’s story is superseded by those of Ansel show more and Aldine. While Ellie cooks, cleans, and mothers her children, Ansel and Aldine wallow in an emotional desert.

Ansel Price dreams of a reality he cannot have — a successful farm instead of one being swept away by Dust Bowl winds, a town with time for culture and poetry, a wife who still loves him. He advertises for a cultured school teacher when there are no funds to pay her.

Aldine McKenna, already an immigrant from Scotland, leaves her sister’s home for the Kansas plains to live among strangers. What did she seek? A question unanswered. What did she find? A home where no one welcomed her company, a classroom she couldn’t manage, and a man whose longings were as desperate as her own.

Practice Houses, also known as Home Management Houses, were common in pre-World War II America. The new science of Home Economics condemned traditional housekeeping. Household Management became an academic subject. High school and college girls learned how to cook, sew, and clean before participating in a “practice house” with hands-on training that included childcare. Ellie’s daughter Charlotte, despite her lack of formal training, presides over such a house in the family’s new California community.

I received Practice House as part of my Amazon Prime membership. show less

It's the 1930s, and orphaned sisters Leenie and Aldine McKenna live unhappily with their maiden aunt in a small Scottish town, longing for adventure. It comes their way in the form of two American Mormon missionaries. Leenie falls in love with one, marries, and moves to New York, and Aldine soon follows. But ultimately she wants more than a life dependent on her sister. She answers an ad in the paper for a teaching position in Kansas. But all is not as it seems. When she arrives, Aldine discovers that Ansel Price, who posted the ad, had not yet secured a salary for her nor a place to stay. She ends up moving in with Price, his wife, and their three children and assumes her role in the classroom.

And thus begins the novel's main conflict. show more It's the Great Depression, and Price is a farmer in the Dust Bowl: they are having trouble making ends meet, and the last thing Ellie Price wants is another mouth to feed--especially a pretty, cultured one with a charming accent. Ellie wants to move the family to her sister's home in California where life seems to be better. As to the Price children, the youngest, Neva, who suffers from a chronic respiratory condition caused by the dust, adores Aldine--as does their son, Clare (Clarence, or as Aldine pronounces it, to his ear, "Clay-dance"). Charlotte, the oldest, shares her mother's resentment. When Ansel himself becomes totally captivated by Aldine, you just know that hardship and tragedy will follow, and they do.

While the story was somewhat cliché, I did enjoy the depiction of farm life in Dust Bowl Kansas and the details on the Harvey Houses, a chain of hotels/restaurants established near train depots in the West. Ellie and Ansel both worked at the Emporia Harvey House when they first me, and Aldine takes a job there when the Prices leave Kansas. In California, an influential older man falls for Charlotte and creates a job for her as teacher in a "practice house"--i.e., an expanded home economics classroom--where high school girls can learn to cook, sew, and keep house. So overall, an OK story with some interesting background information. show less

My dad was kind enough to buy me the new Nook and gave it to me while I was in NC to drive him to Florida for my brother's birthday. I was checking it out and while downloading my android apps and this book popped up as a deal. When I started to just check it out, I read it all the way through. Aldine McKenna is stuck in a Scottish village in 1929 with her sister and elderly aunt when two Morman missionaries ring their bell. Aldine's sister falls for one of the young men, marries him and moves to America. Aldine follows her sister to America and answers an ad for a teacher needed in Kansas. The time period is very much a main character here, Kansas being in the middle of a drought with farms failing and schools closing for lack of show more money. She teaches for no money and lives with the Price family where the family members responds to her with kindness, curiosity and suspicion. It was very easy to caught up in the action of this story so that I had to finish it. It was a very good first ebook on my new Nook. show less