The All-American by Susie Finkbeiner

 

It is 1952, and nearly all the girls 16-year-old Bertha Harding knows dream of getting married, keeping house, and raising children in the suburbs of Detroit, Michigan. Bertha dreams of baseball. She reads every story in the sports section, she plays ball with the neighborhood boys--she even writes letters to the pitcher for the Workington Sweet Peas, part of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League.

When Bertha's father is accused of being part of the Communist Party by the House Un-American Activities Committee, life comes crashing down on them. Disgraced and shunned, the Hardings move to a small town to start over where the only one who knows them is shy Uncle Matthew. But dreams are hard to kill, and when Bertha gets a chance to try out for the Workington Sweet Peas, she packs her bags for an adventure she'll never forget.

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About The Author

 

Susie Finkbeiner is the CBA bestselling author of The Nature of Small Birds, All Manner of Things — which was selected as a 2020 Michigan Notable Book — and Stories That Bind Us, as well as A Cup of Dust, A Trail of Crumbs, and A Song of Home.

She serves on the Fiction Readers Summit planning committee, volunteers her time at Ada Bible Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and speaks at retreats and women’s events across the country. Susie and her husband have three children and live in West Michigan.

 

My Review

 The All American pass time, baseball, and Susie Finkbeiner, has gifted us with a page turner, and you won't be able to put this one down!

We meet the Harding family, Bertha, Flossie and Chipper, siblings living in the Detroit Michigan suburbs during the early 1950's. This is a period of rebirth after the war, but it is also the time of McCarthyism!

This story is told by the sisters, one in love with and good at baseball, the other loves books and is always reading! Their teenage years, and how accusations changed everything!

I loved that we learn more about women's baseball as Bertha joins the Sweet Peas!

When the last page was turned I wanted to continue in the lives of the Hardings!

I received this book through Net Galley and the Publisher Revel, and was not required to give a positive review.