Join award winning author Susie Finkbeiner to discuss her newest novel—a 2024 Michigan Notable Book—The All-American on Wednesday, May 29 from 6 to 7 p.m. in the Community in the Timothy C. Hauenstein Reynolds Township Library. Finkbeiner's book The All-Amercian by Susan Finkbeiner. Copies are available for checkout.

Susie Finkbeiner is the CBA bestselling author of The All-American, 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.

Book Summary

Sixteen year old, Bertha Harding is not like other girls. She isn’t interested in getting married, having babies, and being a homemaker. She is far more interested in joining the neighborhood boys in a fast paced game of baseball.

Her eleven year old sister, Flossie, on the other hand, wants nothing more than to fit in with the girls in her class. But, try as she might, she can’t seem to make a single friend other than those she finds in her books. It’s in those books that she finds hope for her own happily-ever-after.

But every life has a few strikes against it. When their father is accused of being part of the Communist party, life comes crashing down around them. It is clear they can no longer stay in their home where rumors of the Harding family run rampant. They escape to the small town of Bear Run, Michigan. 

It’s there where Bertha grows even more determined to play for the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League, even trying out for the Workington Sweet Peas. And it’s in Bear Run where Flossie learns to be a friend and to find the good in everything. 

Join Finkbeiner on an exciting journey you will never forget in The All-American.