Welcome to the KPL Book Club Blogspot

Welcome to the internet home of the Kilbourn Public Library (KPL) Book Club. The KPL Book Club meets at the library once a month. A book is chosen for each month and then members of the book club meet the last Monday and Wednesday of every month for lively discussion and treats. While we can’t offer you treats via the internet, this KPL Reads blog was designed for those of you who would like to participate in the book club but don’t have time to join us at meetings. Each month KPL staff will post discussion topics and questions to get you “talking”. Join in the discussion by adding a post to the blog. Click on the word comments below the post you want to "talk" about and write your comment. Be sure to check back often to see feedback and comments.

Thursday, July 3, 2008

The Kilbourn Public Library Book Club has chosen Keeping the House by Ellen Baker as the selection for July. Keeping the House is the story of a frustrated young housewife in 1950, Dolly Magnuson, who thinks there must be more to life than ironing her husband's shirts and planning his next meal. She ends up getting tangled up in mystery, romance, and scandal of an abandoned, and reputedly cursed, Victorian house when she breaks into it intending to fix it up--thinking that living in such a place couldn't help but make her life more spectacular.

In Dolly's life and the lives of the characters in this novel, the Mickelson house is personified as a character in the book. Why do you think Dolly was initially drawn to the house and intrigued by its history?

Throughout the novel, several quotes from past magazines appear (particularly from Ladies' Home Journal in the 1950s), giving advice to housewives. Find a few of these quotes and let us know how you think these tips illustrate the change or evolution of the 20th Century housewife. Do you think any of the tips are valid or helpful today?

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