The World at Home by Ginny Kubitz Moyer isn’t set entirely in December, but its introduction of the first performance of The Nutcracker in the United States in San Francisco on Christmas Eve in 1944 is one of the reasons historical fiction devotees will want to read the novel this month. It’s a novel that captures the burgeoning city of San Francisco during wartime with its diversity and the influx of soldiers and sailors ready to embark into the war in the Pacific. The story focuses on twenty-year-old Irene Cleary, an orphaned seamstress, who has recently inherited her shop and the apartment above it from the Russian seamstress who mentored her. Irene grew up in a local Catholic orphanage where she was dropped off shortly after her birth. She met her best friend, Trixie, when they were eight and Trixie and her brothers came to the orphanage while their mother was in a tuberculosis sanatorium and unable to care for them. When Trixie’s mother was well and the children went home, their family included her in all holidays and family gatherings allowing Irene to feel their nurture and love.
The book opens when Irene receives an invitation to the home of Cynthia Burke, a wealthy Nob Hill newlywed, who wants a dress remade. When Mrs. Burke’s husband Max, an owner of Chicago nightclubs, sees Irene’s design skills, he asks her to help him design his new San Francisco nightclub. Irene also volunteers at the USO where she falls in love with a sailor just before he leaves to serve. Irene busies herself with her clients and also helps with a new San Francisco Ballet production after learning that her mentor volunteered sewing costumes for the ballet The ballet company is hurriedly preparing for the first performance of The Nutcracker while rationing makes costume creation exceedingly difficult. When a theatre closes, the ballet acquires its red velvet curtains which Irene and others are able to use thus allowing them to complete the costumes.
Irene has many obstacles and complications in her young life, but she’s such a real, caring, and complex character that this reader constantly cheered her on while peering at her on the page. I was so caught up in her life that I read the entire novel in less than a day. The World at Home offers romance, historical detail, and enough moral quandaries to make the reader flip the pages to keep up with an ever-changing world.
I’ve often believed that what we love as a child will make us happy as an adult. This is shown in the novel when Irene shares that her love of clothes began the Christmas when she was nine and she received a book of paper dolls. “It was a family: Mother, with marcelled hair and profuse eyelashes; Father, a pipe forever stuck in his mouth: dark-haired Jimmy, blonde Jane, and Baby, a child of indeterminate gender with a large amber curl on his or her forehead.” Irene was fascinated with the mother and after living her entire life surrounded by nuns in black robes, she was enamored with the mother’s colorful outfits. Irene played with and dressed the dolls endlessly and began sketching new clothes for the them which opened an entire new world to her. She later realized that she was happiest and most fulfilled when she was sewing or creating clothing designs which meant that her profession, her volunteer work for the ballet, and her ideas for the night club buoyed her during tough times.
Summing it Up: Read The World at Home to see what San Francisco was like in 1944 and to enter the life of a delightful, caring, talented young woman on the brink of adult life. Savor the insights into her growth, her loves, and the way her life mirrors the changing city. The World at Home made me want to purchase a plane ticket to see the streets she made come alive.
Rating: 5 Stars
Publication Date: December 9, 2025
Categories: Fiction, Five Stars, Grandma’s Pot Roast, Pigeion Pie, Super Nutrition, Book Club
Author Website: https://ginnymoyer.org/the-world-at-home/
Interview with the Author: https://thenerddaily.com/ginny-kubitz-moyer-the-world-at-home-interview/
What Others Are Saying:
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-world-at-home-by-ginny-kubitz-moyer
Kirkus Reviews: https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/ginny-kubitz-moyer/the-world-at-home/
“Beautifully crafted, poignant, and engaging. . . . There is an innocence to this novel that will at once shatter your heart and give wings to hope. Oh, to be 20 again. I loved this book.” Ashley E. Sweeney, author of The Irish Girl
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