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The Practice House
Nineteen-year-old Aldine McKenna is stuck at home with her sister and aunt in a Scottish village in 1929 when two Mormon missionaries ring the doorbell. Aldine’s sister converts and moves to America to marry, and Aldine follows, hoping to find the life she’s meant to lead and the person she’s meant to love.
In New York, Aldine answers an ad soliciting a teacher for a one-room schoolhouse in a place she can’t possibly imagine drought-stricken Kansas. She arrives as farms on the Great Plains have begun to fail and schools are going bankrupt, unable to pay or house new teachers. With no money and too much pride to turn back, she lives uneasily with the family of Ansel Price—the charming, optimistic man who placed the ad—and his family responds to her with kind curiosity, suspicion, and, most dangerously, love. Just as she’s settling into her strange new life, a storm forces unspoken thoughts to the surface that will forever alter the course of their lives.
Laura McNeal’s novel is a sweeping and timeless love story about leaving—and finding—home.
In New York, Aldine answers an ad soliciting a teacher for a one-room schoolhouse in a place she can’t possibly imagine drought-stricken Kansas. She arrives as farms on the Great Plains have begun to fail and schools are going bankrupt, unable to pay or house new teachers. With no money and too much pride to turn back, she lives uneasily with the family of Ansel Price—the charming, optimistic man who placed the ad—and his family responds to her with kind curiosity, suspicion, and, most dangerously, love. Just as she’s settling into her strange new life, a storm forces unspoken thoughts to the surface that will forever alter the course of their lives.
Laura McNeal’s novel is a sweeping and timeless love story about leaving—and finding—home.
492 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 2017
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About the author
Laura McNeal
15 books324 followersLiving since 1983 (the year I first read Thomas Hardy) in the haunted mansion of Victorian literature.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 850 reviews
March 6, 2017
Kindle First Edition for March. I appear to be in the minority of reviewers, but this novel just didn't click for me. I had trouble connecting to any of the characters, and when that occurs (or doesn't occur as the case might be), it's hard to win me over any other way. The story was also just a bit "jumble-y" for me. While the first half of the book was squarely focused on the character of Aldine, with her in the lead/starring role, all of a sudden the second half of the book becomes an ensemble piece, with all of the characters' stories taking up equal space. I almost felt as though the author ran out of writing gas for Aldine's storyline, so she started writing more about the other characters instead. I'm also just at a loss to understand why the author chose the title that she did - while "The Practice House" is referenced and explained in the book - it never takes on any real significance in the story and I don't think is title-worthy. Bit of a let down.
February 26, 2017
Lucky me and my advance reader's copy of The Practice House.
I was so absorbed by this story, which opens quietly and builds thoughtfully and inevitably towards its storm, that the places described appear in my memory visually, as places I must have been or at least seen in photographs. The writing is spare and sure, but the details are rich and vivid. So much quiet tension: between known and unknown, impulse and intellect, appearance and inner life, between simplicity and complexity, between the lush river of home and the dry landscape Aldene 'escapes' to--and all of it pulls you in. The writing is beautiful. I love a story, and a writer, that I can trust enough to surrender myself completely to the tale. And I love a novel that makes me forget I am learning something about a place and time I haven't studied much. This is that book.
I was so absorbed by this story, which opens quietly and builds thoughtfully and inevitably towards its storm, that the places described appear in my memory visually, as places I must have been or at least seen in photographs. The writing is spare and sure, but the details are rich and vivid. So much quiet tension: between known and unknown, impulse and intellect, appearance and inner life, between simplicity and complexity, between the lush river of home and the dry landscape Aldene 'escapes' to--and all of it pulls you in. The writing is beautiful. I love a story, and a writer, that I can trust enough to surrender myself completely to the tale. And I love a novel that makes me forget I am learning something about a place and time I haven't studied much. This is that book.
August 23, 2025
The first half of this book was intriguing. Set during the dust bowl, and involving a main character that is truly a fish out of water, it was right up my alley. Sprinkle in a little forbidden romance, and well you can guess the rest.
However, where the book stumbles is in the second half. The author does a lot of character POV hopping, sometimes in the middle of a paragraph or scene and it took some getting used to. I found it stifled the writing. Also changing the balance of the book from at first being told from the Scottish sisters POV, to one sister and every then member of the Price family (even some third tier characters) was a bit dragging and slowed the book to a crawl. It felt extemporaneous and unnecessary.
Lastly, I felt detached from the love story the novel is built around. This, for a couple of reasons. I did not feel it was very authentic - that is, how it originally developed. These characters seemed more mindful than that. And well, not to come off as moralistic, but it was deeply wrong. Sullied from the start. As some reviewers point out, it may be more realistic to what human beings tend to do in the off page world, but in a fiction novel built around romance it felt exhausting and irritating. I have more to write, but need to sit with this story for a while. Maybe in the future I'll give it another read.
On a better note, I did enjoy the ending. I felt it came full circle and yet, left me wondering in a satisfied way. My final rating is a 3.9 (rounded to 4 for Goodreads).
However, where the book stumbles is in the second half. The author does a lot of character POV hopping, sometimes in the middle of a paragraph or scene and it took some getting used to. I found it stifled the writing. Also changing the balance of the book from at first being told from the Scottish sisters POV, to one sister and every then member of the Price family (even some third tier characters) was a bit dragging and slowed the book to a crawl. It felt extemporaneous and unnecessary.
Lastly, I felt detached from the love story the novel is built around. This, for a couple of reasons. I did not feel it was very authentic - that is, how it originally developed. These characters seemed more mindful than that. And well, not to come off as moralistic, but it was deeply wrong. Sullied from the start. As some reviewers point out, it may be more realistic to what human beings tend to do in the off page world, but in a fiction novel built around romance it felt exhausting and irritating. I have more to write, but need to sit with this story for a while. Maybe in the future I'll give it another read.
On a better note, I did enjoy the ending. I felt it came full circle and yet, left me wondering in a satisfied way. My final rating is a 3.9 (rounded to 4 for Goodreads).
April 5, 2017
I am shocked by how many 5 star ratings this ho-hum book has been given. The story starts off with two sisters in Scotland and all of a sudden one is married and seldom mentioned again. The story skipped around a lot. The end of one chapter, it's Thanksgiving and by the next chapter it's Christmas. And at other times the storyline drags on. It isn't until about two-thirds into the book that the book title comes into play, which I thought was odd. Really wanted to like this book...but just couldn't. Glad to finally be done with this book, so I can start on a better one.
April 2, 2017
Wow! This is a story that will stay with you long after you've read it and those are the best. Great characters and capturing story. Fantastic imagery and super historical novel. I was lucky enough to read an advance copy. Put this one on your shelves! You'll be glad you did.
April 16, 2017
Tragic, intriguing story of Dust Bowl Kansas and also the trek to California to find salvation.
In summary, I find this novel the kind Thomas Hardy would have written, had he experienced 1930s America in the midwest. The characters are vivid and fully fleshed out. I was engaged from the very first paragraph. There is humor here in the midst of the pathos. There is hope in the midst of the misery.
California in the 30s is painted as a bright shiny bauble. Beautiful, but shallow...and with a seamy underside. Kansas is depicted as the place of broken dreams.
My favorite character (and I think it is intended to be) is Clare, the oldest son. Ansel, the tragic father, is heroic and severely flawed. And then there is Aldine, who is everything you could ever want, and everything you could ever be disappointed in at the same time.
The struggles here are so timeless. A wonderful book.
In summary, I find this novel the kind Thomas Hardy would have written, had he experienced 1930s America in the midwest. The characters are vivid and fully fleshed out. I was engaged from the very first paragraph. There is humor here in the midst of the pathos. There is hope in the midst of the misery.
California in the 30s is painted as a bright shiny bauble. Beautiful, but shallow...and with a seamy underside. Kansas is depicted as the place of broken dreams.
My favorite character (and I think it is intended to be) is Clare, the oldest son. Ansel, the tragic father, is heroic and severely flawed. And then there is Aldine, who is everything you could ever want, and everything you could ever be disappointed in at the same time.
The struggles here are so timeless. A wonderful book.
March 7, 2017
Slow Moving
The first three quarters of the book was agonizingly slow. The remaining chapters are what give the plot meaning, but no surprises....very predictable.
The first three quarters of the book was agonizingly slow. The remaining chapters are what give the plot meaning, but no surprises....very predictable.
March 5, 2017
This book was in amazon's freebie list for prime members. Wonderful story with solid characters, great setting and plot with a satisfying ending. The only thing I didn't like was the title!
May 29, 2017
The Practice House, by Laura McNeal, is essentially about people creating their sense of home. For some, the landscape creates that feeling of belonging. For others, being near family makes them feel safe. In this book, I got completely immersed in depression-era Kansas, and California, and how differently people lived at that time. It swept me away!
What I Liked:
Settings:
The book mainly takes place in Kansas and in California in the early 1930's. I loved the author's details. Even though, intellectually, I know that there was little technology at that time, it really hit me how differently people lived. Many people in the 1930's didn't even have telephones! Letters took weeks, or sometimes months, to be delivered. Children, especially in rural areas, went to school sporadically. Medicine was also rather primitive and many never went to a doctor in their entire lives.
I was also struck by how the characters ate. This was during the depression, so many people in the Midwest went hungry if they didn't have a cellar of preserved food to rely on in the winter. Contrasting this with California, where food could be grown year-round, and the west coast became a dreamland for many. Perhaps that is why so many people migrated to the state when America's farmland evolved into the dust bowl.
Characters:
Aldine is a restless teen living in Scotland. With her parents dead, she and her sister seem stuck to live a dreary life as spinsters with their aunt. A chance knock on the door by two young Morman missionaries changes everything, and leads Aldine to follow her sister to America.
I liked Aldine but she was certainly no saint. I think she was so desperate to belong to a family that she willfully ignored how her actions affected others. But I did admire her determination to fix her own problems. She didn't try to excuse her behavior or willfully try to manipulate the men in her life.
Clare (short for Clarence) is the son in the Kansas family who is infatuated with Aldine. I liked he could see clearly what was happening in his house (I'm being vague so as not to reveal spoilers). He was also so stoic when things get difficult. Through it all, he remained loving to his family.
Charlotte and her mother Ellie are both survivors who find ways to create the lives they want, despite their circumstances. Although sometimes, they were hard to like (particularly Charlotte's pettiness towards Aldine), each of them made a conscious choice to find a way to get what was important to them. For Charlotte, it was the need to get married to be an adult. For Ellie, it was to go to California to be near her sister and find a way to be financially independent.
Themes of Home:
Throughout this book, there was a theme of what home means. Is it financial security? The freedom to be your own boss? Being near family? I think that is why this book has this name, The Practice House. Each character is practicing ways to create their own sense of home and belonging. Since it is different for each person, I can't judge many of their actions. And while I may not agree with some of their choices, I can understand the deep need to belong.
What I Didn't Like:
Characters:
I really didn't like Ansel, the father of the family who Aldine lives with. I found him to be selfish and willfully ignorant of his family's suffering. He is so tied to the land that he doesn't seem too concerned that his wife and children don't have enough to eat. And he resents his wife asking her father for money to help them. As much as I understood that he felt connected to his farm, when you become a parent, everything should become secondary to the well-being of your children.
I am not criticizing the writing of this character. In fact, I think it was very well written. I just hated how Ansel treated his family, and Aldine.
What I Liked:
Settings:
The book mainly takes place in Kansas and in California in the early 1930's. I loved the author's details. Even though, intellectually, I know that there was little technology at that time, it really hit me how differently people lived. Many people in the 1930's didn't even have telephones! Letters took weeks, or sometimes months, to be delivered. Children, especially in rural areas, went to school sporadically. Medicine was also rather primitive and many never went to a doctor in their entire lives.
I was also struck by how the characters ate. This was during the depression, so many people in the Midwest went hungry if they didn't have a cellar of preserved food to rely on in the winter. Contrasting this with California, where food could be grown year-round, and the west coast became a dreamland for many. Perhaps that is why so many people migrated to the state when America's farmland evolved into the dust bowl.
Characters:
Aldine is a restless teen living in Scotland. With her parents dead, she and her sister seem stuck to live a dreary life as spinsters with their aunt. A chance knock on the door by two young Morman missionaries changes everything, and leads Aldine to follow her sister to America.
I liked Aldine but she was certainly no saint. I think she was so desperate to belong to a family that she willfully ignored how her actions affected others. But I did admire her determination to fix her own problems. She didn't try to excuse her behavior or willfully try to manipulate the men in her life.
Clare (short for Clarence) is the son in the Kansas family who is infatuated with Aldine. I liked he could see clearly what was happening in his house (I'm being vague so as not to reveal spoilers). He was also so stoic when things get difficult. Through it all, he remained loving to his family.
Charlotte and her mother Ellie are both survivors who find ways to create the lives they want, despite their circumstances. Although sometimes, they were hard to like (particularly Charlotte's pettiness towards Aldine), each of them made a conscious choice to find a way to get what was important to them. For Charlotte, it was the need to get married to be an adult. For Ellie, it was to go to California to be near her sister and find a way to be financially independent.
Themes of Home:
Throughout this book, there was a theme of what home means. Is it financial security? The freedom to be your own boss? Being near family? I think that is why this book has this name, The Practice House. Each character is practicing ways to create their own sense of home and belonging. Since it is different for each person, I can't judge many of their actions. And while I may not agree with some of their choices, I can understand the deep need to belong.
What I Didn't Like:
Characters:
I really didn't like Ansel, the father of the family who Aldine lives with. I found him to be selfish and willfully ignorant of his family's suffering. He is so tied to the land that he doesn't seem too concerned that his wife and children don't have enough to eat. And he resents his wife asking her father for money to help them. As much as I understood that he felt connected to his farm, when you become a parent, everything should become secondary to the well-being of your children.
I am not criticizing the writing of this character. In fact, I think it was very well written. I just hated how Ansel treated his family, and Aldine.
April 20, 2017
I found this to be a total waste of time. I wish this book were marketed as a romance novel, or perhaps it is and I didn't see it. If it were intended to be a romance novel it'd be a terrible one at that. I hugely dislike the characters who fall in love with each other.
I got this book because I thought it would actually have something to do with Mormon men meeting two Scottish women when they were on a mission to Scotland. And that seemed cool, because it's a story I never would have come up with at all. I thought, wow, these characters are going to be so interesting! But we totally lost any story with the one sister who married one of the men. So what was the point of that? Yes, there needed to be some reason in the plot that Aldine made it to the U.S., but the idea that the pair of sisters comes over after meeting two Mormon men is noteworthy enough for there to be a story focused on that. I felt like there was a bait and switch in the plot. Not a fun surprise.
SPOILER (But, meh, don't read the book, I'd say)
Then, not only did we lose the story I wanted to learn about, it turned into what felt like a terrible story of two selfish people who want to hook up but don't care about hurting other people. And who, for example, think it's terrible to leave a state that is giving your seven year old daughter pneumonia and who are totally fine leaving her there to FoLlOw TrUe LoVe.
I can't say I'm a fan of someone abandoning his kids, running off to be with the young teacher whom he hired (never paid) and had sex with. Am I supposed to want them to be together? I have no sympathy for a dad like that. And the story wasn't strong enough for it to be worthwhile to have so much plot focussed on two unlikeable protagonists. I think it takes a lot to make a book worthwhile when you don't like the characters, it needs to be able to force you to think long and hard about something and question how the difficulties affect your life, or something like that. But this story did none of that.
Totally disappointed in the book.
I got this book because I thought it would actually have something to do with Mormon men meeting two Scottish women when they were on a mission to Scotland. And that seemed cool, because it's a story I never would have come up with at all. I thought, wow, these characters are going to be so interesting! But we totally lost any story with the one sister who married one of the men. So what was the point of that? Yes, there needed to be some reason in the plot that Aldine made it to the U.S., but the idea that the pair of sisters comes over after meeting two Mormon men is noteworthy enough for there to be a story focused on that. I felt like there was a bait and switch in the plot. Not a fun surprise.
SPOILER (But, meh, don't read the book, I'd say)
Then, not only did we lose the story I wanted to learn about, it turned into what felt like a terrible story of two selfish people who want to hook up but don't care about hurting other people. And who, for example, think it's terrible to leave a state that is giving your seven year old daughter pneumonia and who are totally fine leaving her there to FoLlOw TrUe LoVe.
I can't say I'm a fan of someone abandoning his kids, running off to be with the young teacher whom he hired (never paid) and had sex with. Am I supposed to want them to be together? I have no sympathy for a dad like that. And the story wasn't strong enough for it to be worthwhile to have so much plot focussed on two unlikeable protagonists. I think it takes a lot to make a book worthwhile when you don't like the characters, it needs to be able to force you to think long and hard about something and question how the difficulties affect your life, or something like that. But this story did none of that.
Totally disappointed in the book.
March 8, 2017
Dust bowl, Depression of 1930's, illness, injury, death, and more all happen to one family in Kansas. It would have been a more compelling story if it were well written. I did read till the end because I wanted to see how it all turned out. I'm glad I got it for free from Amazon, because otherwise I would be upset over money spent on it.
March 27, 2017
2 stars may be generous here. I am not even sure if I read the same book some of the other reviewers have read. I finished it and was very thankful I did not pay for it.
I should have put the book down when I realized, with no explanation, that Clare was a boy. I thought there was an editing mistake. Honestly, while as a nickname for Clarence, I am OK with, but how is the reader supposed to know this??? I spent the first chapters after his introduction wondering why on earth would two people name their only son a girl's name?
The biggest issue is that this was billed as a "powerful" love story. The book was really a group of pathetic characters, very one dimensional, all stereotypical. We have Ansel: "forward thinking" Family man. Who ends up sleeping with his boarding school teacher. Why??? because his wife had enough of his pride starving herself and her children to death. We have Aldine: the best word for this character is pathetic. She did not grow at all in the book. The girl we saw on page 1 was the girl we saw on the last page. Insecure, immature and naive. I had hope for her in the beginning. Charlotte: gold digger. Clare and Neva were fine, but as supporting characters they filled the role they needed too. Ellie was perhaps the strongest character; I could not blame her for calling her father for money, for insisting upon leaving for CA, for refusing to go back to Kansas or for doing what she felt was best for her family. I think the author wanted her to be the antagonist; but honestly, who wouldn't hate a young girl, taking food out of your starving family's mouth and watching your husband lust for her.
A word of advice to authors everywhere: stop making pathetic virgins sleeping with married men pregnant after their first sexual encounter. It rarely happens that way.
I should have put the book down when I realized, with no explanation, that Clare was a boy. I thought there was an editing mistake. Honestly, while as a nickname for Clarence, I am OK with, but how is the reader supposed to know this??? I spent the first chapters after his introduction wondering why on earth would two people name their only son a girl's name?
The biggest issue is that this was billed as a "powerful" love story. The book was really a group of pathetic characters, very one dimensional, all stereotypical. We have Ansel: "forward thinking" Family man. Who ends up sleeping with his boarding school teacher. Why??? because his wife had enough of his pride starving herself and her children to death. We have Aldine: the best word for this character is pathetic. She did not grow at all in the book. The girl we saw on page 1 was the girl we saw on the last page. Insecure, immature and naive. I had hope for her in the beginning. Charlotte: gold digger. Clare and Neva were fine, but as supporting characters they filled the role they needed too. Ellie was perhaps the strongest character; I could not blame her for calling her father for money, for insisting upon leaving for CA, for refusing to go back to Kansas or for doing what she felt was best for her family. I think the author wanted her to be the antagonist; but honestly, who wouldn't hate a young girl, taking food out of your starving family's mouth and watching your husband lust for her.
A word of advice to authors everywhere: stop making pathetic virgins sleeping with married men pregnant after their first sexual encounter. It rarely happens that way.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 2, 2017
This was the only Kindle first book that held any interest to me, and I wound up liking it more than I thought I would. Set during The Great Depression, it *is* a depressing book. Not a lot of good happens, though there are glimpses of happiness, but I still found myself wanting to know what happens next.
Aldine travels from Scotland to New York, then to Kansas for a schoolteacher position (though she has no experience). When she gets there, she finds that she has nowhere to live and no one is sure if she'll get paid. She's stuck, there's no money for her to go back, so the Price family (Ansel and Ellie, with their children Charlotte, Clarance and Neva) take her in.
The drought is horrid, money is extremely tight, food is getting more and more scarce. Aldine is welcomed by Ansel, Clare and Neva and distrusted by Ellie and Charlotte. I was at turns annoyed by Aldine and sympathetic to her. She just desperately wants to fit in, to be loved. Ansel's character remained a bit of a mystery to me throughout the book. He's a bit of a dreamer, but while he likes to let his mind wander, his soul is tethered to his Kansas farm.
Roughly half of the book takes place in Kansas, the rest happens in California. I thought the story got more interesting in California. Lots of tension between Ellie, who sees California as paradise and Ansel, who feels strangled by it.
There are POV from Aldine, the entire Price family, and a few other characters besides. It seems like a lot, but I liked seeing how things looked through their eyes, especially Neva, who provided some much needed levity on occasion.
Aldine travels from Scotland to New York, then to Kansas for a schoolteacher position (though she has no experience). When she gets there, she finds that she has nowhere to live and no one is sure if she'll get paid. She's stuck, there's no money for her to go back, so the Price family (Ansel and Ellie, with their children Charlotte, Clarance and Neva) take her in.
The drought is horrid, money is extremely tight, food is getting more and more scarce. Aldine is welcomed by Ansel, Clare and Neva and distrusted by Ellie and Charlotte. I was at turns annoyed by Aldine and sympathetic to her. She just desperately wants to fit in, to be loved. Ansel's character remained a bit of a mystery to me throughout the book. He's a bit of a dreamer, but while he likes to let his mind wander, his soul is tethered to his Kansas farm.
Roughly half of the book takes place in Kansas, the rest happens in California. I thought the story got more interesting in California. Lots of tension between Ellie, who sees California as paradise and Ansel, who feels strangled by it.
There are POV from Aldine, the entire Price family, and a few other characters besides. It seems like a lot, but I liked seeing how things looked through their eyes, especially Neva, who provided some much needed levity on occasion.
April 7, 2017
Great character writing
Love or loathe, I felt so connected to these people. At times I found myself lost in their trials. I rejoiced in their happiness and I mourned their losses.
Love or loathe, I felt so connected to these people. At times I found myself lost in their trials. I rejoiced in their happiness and I mourned their losses.
June 20, 2017
Easily could be 4.5 stars. This was an excellent read! Great and satisfying ending! The whole story was great and satisfying.
April 26, 2017
This book is about a family in Kansas during the dust bowl. It was particularly interesting to me as my Mother who is 94 lived through this terrible time and can describe setting the table with the plates upside down to keep the dust off before eating dinner. It was historically accurate and the story was quite engaging.
March 15, 2017
Honest writing and very depressing.
August 1, 2018
Good story during the Dust Bowl in Kansas.
April 18, 2017
If you can only read one fiction book this year, I urge you to read The Practice House by Laura McNeal. Sounds a little extreme maybe, though the story was 480 pages I had difficulty putting it down. I know I will read it many times over.
The Practice House is the story of two Scottish sisters who meet two Mormon missionaries in 1929 and immigrant to America. One marries and the other, Aldine, takes a teaching position in Kansas at the height of the Dust Bowl. She is hired by Ansel Price. The family story ends in California in 1957, where the children of Price have inherited a restaurant in the style of the Harvey House from their mother.
The author's writing led me along nicely with surprising turns in every chapter. Chapters are short. The story ending is as the book is, filled with life and death struggles.
The Practice House is the story of two Scottish sisters who meet two Mormon missionaries in 1929 and immigrant to America. One marries and the other, Aldine, takes a teaching position in Kansas at the height of the Dust Bowl. She is hired by Ansel Price. The family story ends in California in 1957, where the children of Price have inherited a restaurant in the style of the Harvey House from their mother.
The author's writing led me along nicely with surprising turns in every chapter. Chapters are short. The story ending is as the book is, filled with life and death struggles.
March 30, 2017
It's a painful love story about Miss McKenna, a Scottish girl hired to teach school in rural Kansas. They say you can't help who you fall in love with and this story proves the theory. The book started slow, but as the characters develop, the read goes much faster. I couldn't wait to see how it ended, -and thankfully the author wrote an Epilogue. The best ending you could never imagine .
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May 11, 2017Better than 3 stars,but not quite 4 stars. Here's what got me about these characters: I liked them! Often they were naïve, vindictive, unrealistic, immature, and beaten down by life. I got annoyed with their actions, nevertheless I liked them. They were just very flawed, very human individuals.
September 5, 2020
I repeat the words in the synopsis, “a love story about leaving home and finding home.” An easy read and good insight about life in Kansas, the Price family certainly had their trials and tribulations, good character development, however just at times the plot wandered at times, however all coming together in the end.
April 18, 2017
Depression Era novel. Perhaps representative of that time. Depressing plot. Written well.
March 24, 2017
A great read
This book was so good . I never have any luck with kindle first books but wow ! The first few pages I wasn't sure if I would like it , but that story line then catches you . It starts out about a Scottish young woman named Aldine that answers an ad for a schoolteacher in rural Kansas . She lives with the PRice family . And what an interesting family they are . They are all transformed by this Scottish traveler .
This book was so good . I never have any luck with kindle first books but wow ! The first few pages I wasn't sure if I would like it , but that story line then catches you . It starts out about a Scottish young woman named Aldine that answers an ad for a schoolteacher in rural Kansas . She lives with the PRice family . And what an interesting family they are . They are all transformed by this Scottish traveler .
March 22, 2017
This novel beautifully follows the complex unfolding of a family's life and that of a school teacher they take in. The novel begins with the family and the woman having separate lives. They then begin to intertwine and then entangle until they seem to to be inseparable.
September 16, 2019
I know people of that time had hard sad lives. It doesn't help them or me to read about it. I didn't like the story. It made me sad.
March 15, 2017
well written, but sad depressing story. Scottish immigrant goes from NYC to Kansas during the dust bowl. Can't get more depressing than that you'd think, but it does! Probably deserves 5 stars but I read for entertainment so this book didn't suit me.
July 6, 2017
I love, love, loved this book! I simply could not put it down and enjoyed it from beginning to end. (Now I’m sad that it’s finished.)
Ms. McNeal’s beautiful writing style was so pleasing to me, never contrived, always entertaining. It’s not a suspenseful tale, but rather a well researched, simple story that captured me right from the beginning pages. It’s an account of survival with love woven in.
The Practice House is more a study of its complex characters. The setting is mainly in Kansas in the early ‘30s (and later, California) and explores all the challenges each of those characters must face. The Depression and the devastating dust storms of the plains play a big role, but many other situations are revealed as well.
Each character was well developed and ever so interesting, some in a good way and some not. I especially enjoyed Aldine, the Scottish lass, who met each struggle with determination. I’ll miss her.
Thank you, Ms. McNeal, for one of the best books I’ve ever read. This one deserves more than five stars.
Ms. McNeal’s beautiful writing style was so pleasing to me, never contrived, always entertaining. It’s not a suspenseful tale, but rather a well researched, simple story that captured me right from the beginning pages. It’s an account of survival with love woven in.
The Practice House is more a study of its complex characters. The setting is mainly in Kansas in the early ‘30s (and later, California) and explores all the challenges each of those characters must face. The Depression and the devastating dust storms of the plains play a big role, but many other situations are revealed as well.
Each character was well developed and ever so interesting, some in a good way and some not. I especially enjoyed Aldine, the Scottish lass, who met each struggle with determination. I’ll miss her.
Thank you, Ms. McNeal, for one of the best books I’ve ever read. This one deserves more than five stars.
March 11, 2017
I really liked reading about the family. I loved all of the children. I did not love Ellie, but did feel very bad for her. I did not like Ansel and his selfishness. I feel pretty mixed about Adeline. She was nice, but she was also selfish, so there's that. The ending was pretty predictable, but I didn't hate it.
Overall, I liked the book, but didn't love it.
Overall, I liked the book, but didn't love it.
January 3, 2020
Oh, this is a good book! A very, very good book. Every morning while I was reading this book, I woke up and on the very edge of consciousness, I thought, "Get up! It's another day to read!"
Written by Laura McNeal, this is a historical novel about the dust bowl in Kansas in the 1930s, but unlike so many novels that focus on a historical event, this one almost exclusively explores the very personal human toll—the physical, psychological, and economic effect of the dust bowl on people, rather than pounding the reader with facts and figures.
Ansel and Ellie Price and their children, Charlotte, Clarence, and Neva, live on their family wheat farm in Kansas. Times are tough: It's the early years of the Great Depression, rain is nothing but a distant memory, and dust is always flying in the air and sometimes in huge storms that resemble a tornado and hurricane combined. Despite the hardships, Ansel wants more for his town's children, so he advertises for a schoolteacher. Aldine McKenna, newly immigrated from Scotland, answers the ad. She jumps on a train from New York City, and nothing is ever the same again. Her presence in the Price family is like a shockwave. While Aldine is adjusting to the culture change, Ansel and Clarence are falling in love with her. Neva can't leave her new teacher's side, but Ellie and Charlotte are distrustful and suspicious of her. Meanwhile, the farm is failing, there is no money, food is getting scarcer, and the family must decide if it's time to leave. While dust storms rage through the plains, other kinds of storms are raging inside the Price farmhouse—and those storms will also change their lives forever.
An ingenious plot combined with vividly-created characters that are so real they almost pop off the page make this a gripping, emotionally-charged saga that I will long treasure. Highly recommended!
Written by Laura McNeal, this is a historical novel about the dust bowl in Kansas in the 1930s, but unlike so many novels that focus on a historical event, this one almost exclusively explores the very personal human toll—the physical, psychological, and economic effect of the dust bowl on people, rather than pounding the reader with facts and figures.
Ansel and Ellie Price and their children, Charlotte, Clarence, and Neva, live on their family wheat farm in Kansas. Times are tough: It's the early years of the Great Depression, rain is nothing but a distant memory, and dust is always flying in the air and sometimes in huge storms that resemble a tornado and hurricane combined. Despite the hardships, Ansel wants more for his town's children, so he advertises for a schoolteacher. Aldine McKenna, newly immigrated from Scotland, answers the ad. She jumps on a train from New York City, and nothing is ever the same again. Her presence in the Price family is like a shockwave. While Aldine is adjusting to the culture change, Ansel and Clarence are falling in love with her. Neva can't leave her new teacher's side, but Ellie and Charlotte are distrustful and suspicious of her. Meanwhile, the farm is failing, there is no money, food is getting scarcer, and the family must decide if it's time to leave. While dust storms rage through the plains, other kinds of storms are raging inside the Price farmhouse—and those storms will also change their lives forever.
An ingenious plot combined with vividly-created characters that are so real they almost pop off the page make this a gripping, emotionally-charged saga that I will long treasure. Highly recommended!
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