" The Journal to Stella" by Jonathan Swift is a book that consists of 65 letters to his friend, Esther Johnson, whom he called Stella and whom he may have secretly married. They were written between 1710 and 1713, from various locations in England, and though clearly intended for Stella's eyes were sometimes addressed to her companion Rebecca Dingley. Excerpt: "LETTER VI. London, Oct. 10, 1710. So, as I told you just now in the letter I sent half an hour ago, I dined with Mr. Harley to-day, who presented me to the Attorney-General, Sir Simon Harcourt, with much compliment on all sides, etc. Harley told me he had shown my memorial to the Queen, and seconded it very heartily; and he desires me to dine with him again on Sunday, when he promises to settle it with Her Majesty, p. 34before she names a Governor... "

Sam is full of questions on his first trip to the seashore and his older sister has an answer for each one, except whether or not Sam will ever come into the water.

In 1942, Friedrich, an even-keeled but unworldly young man, arrives in Berlin from bucolic Switzerland with dreams of becoming an artist. At a life drawing class, he is hypnotized by the beautiful model, Kristin, who soon becomes his energetic yet enigmatic guide to the bustling and cosmopolitan city, escorting him to underground jazz clubs where they drink cognac, dance and kiss. The war feels far away to Friedrich, who falls in love with Kristin as they spend time together in his rooms at the Grand Hotel, but as the months pass, the mood in the city darkens as the Nazis tighten their hold on Berlin, terrorizing any who are deemed foes of the Reich. One day, Kristin comes back to Friedrich's rooms in tears, battered and bruised. She tells him that her real name is Stella, and that she is Jewish, passing for Aryan. More disturbing still, she has troubling connections with the Gestapo that Friedrich does not fully understand. As Friedrich confronts Stella's unimaginable choices, he finds himself woefully unprepared for the history he is living through. Based in part on a real historical character, Stella sets a tortured love story against the backdrop of wartime Berlin, and powerfully explores questions of naiveté, young love, betrayal, and the horrors of history.

A Journal to Stella is a work by Jonathan Swift first partly published posthumously in 1766. It consists of 65 letters to his friend, Esther Johnson, whom he called Stella and whom he may have secretly married. They were written between 1710 and 1713, from various locations in England, and though clearly intended for Stella's eyes were sometimes addressed to her companion Rebecca Dingley. Amongst the references to contemporaries of Dean Swift, frequent mention is made of Elizabeth Germain. There is also mention of St. George Ashe, Bishop of Clogher, an old friend who by some accounts secretly married Swift to Stella in 1716.

"When Stella does not want to go to bed, she tries all sorts of ways to keep the sun up"--

When she was small Stella saw the world through her imagination, from hearing trees talk about holding up the sky, to seeing words as ants running off a page, to racing rubber ducks in her bathtub.