This group reads a variety of contemporary nonfiction and meets once a month for discussion. For more information\, contact discussion facilitator Becky Clark at rclark@aurorapubliclibrary.org. Copies of the book are available for checkout at the West Branch reference desk.
\n\n*This book discussion group will not meet i
n December. We will resume meeting in January- happy holidays and new year
! \;
All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan
Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley.
A fascinating\, rev elatory portrait of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its treasures by a former \;New Yorker \;staffer who spent a decade as a museum guard .
\nMillions of people climb the grand marble staircase to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every year. But only a select few hav e unrestricted access to every nook and cranny. They&rsquo\;re the guards who roam unobtrusively in dark blue suits\, keeping a watchful eye on the two million square foot treasure house. Caught up in his glamorous fledgli ng career at \;The \;New Yorker\, Patrick Bringley never thought h e&rsquo\;d be one of them. Then his older brother was diagnosed with fatal cancer and he found himself needing to escape the mundane clamor of daily life. So he quit \;The New Yorker \;and sought solace in the most beautiful place he knew.
\nTo his surprise and the reader& rsquo\;s delight\, this temporary refuge becomes Bringley&rsquo\;s home aw ay from home for a decade. We follow him as he guards delicate treasures f rom Egypt to Rome\, strolls the labyrinths beneath the galleries\, wears o ut nine pairs of company shoes\, and marvels at the beautiful works in his care. Bringley enters the museum as a ghost\, silent and almost invisible \, but soon finds his voice and his tribe: the artworks and their creators and the lively subculture of museum guards&mdash\;a gorgeous mosaic of ar tists\, musicians\, blue-collar stalwarts\, immigrants\, cutups\, and drea mers. As his bonds with his colleagues and the art grow\, he comes to unde rstand how fortunate he is to be walled off in this little world\, and how much it resembles the best aspects of the larger world to which he gradua lly\, gratefully returns.
\nIn the tradition of classic wor kplace memoirs like \;Lab Girl \;and \;Working Stiff\, \;A ll The Beauty in the World \;is a surprising\, inspiring portrait of a great museum\, its hidden treasures\, and the people who make it tick\, b y one of its most intimate observers.
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