Anyone who has grappled with grief from losing a loved one will empathize with this story. Yes, it's an inside look at security at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but it's also a meditation on life and death. Definitely not a combo you usually find. After his brother's death shakes his world, the author steps back from his (typical) life track and goes to work as a museum security guard. The book is a kind of diary of his tenure and his musings on artwork and the people he encounters. But more than that, the book tracks the author's coming of age as he grapples with his grief and slowly transforms from a youth to a man. Magnificent artwork - the Met is one of the world's top museums - and the people surrounding him help guide the journey, in sometimes unforeseen ways.
A fascinating, revelatory portrait of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and its treasures by a former New Yorker staffer who spent a decade as a museum guard.
Millions of people climb the grand marble staircase to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art every year. But only a select few have unrestricted access to every nook and cranny. They’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 fledgling career at The New Yorker, Patrick Bringley never thought he’d be one of them. Then…
Not your typical novel. The slim, spare writing has a quietness that echoes the main character's monastic life in a cloistered Carmelite religious community. Personalities and conflicts are sharply drawn. And the main conflict is sharp indeed, especially for any reader who is a person of faith. This novel will make you think.
Mark Salzman's Lying Awake is a finely wrought gem that plumbs the depths of one woman's soul, and in so doing raises salient questions about the power-and price-of faith.
Sister John's cloistered life of peace and prayer has been electrified by ever more frequent visions of God's radiance, leading her toward a deep religious ecstasy. Her life and writings have become examples of devotion. Yet her visions are accompanied by shattering headaches that compel Sister John to seek medical help. When her doctor tells her an illness may be responsible for her gift, Sister John faces a wrenching choice: to…
Ok, first: Wade through the long opening scenes about the curates. Stick with the book and you'll be rewarded. Written in 1849, Charlotte Bronte's 'Shirley' is particularly timely in 2025 as we deal with AI. 'Shirley' is about the Industrial Revolution and how it affects one small town. The novel is also notable for progressive views about women - progressive for the mid-19th century, that is. And, finally, it's often assumed that the two main female characters are based on the author's then-recently-deceased sisters Emily and Anne. After reading 'Shirley,' I concur.
I feel I got to know and better understand Emily and Anne, who both also wrote important novels we're still reading today. I don't know how I missed reading 'Shirley' until now but I will be returning to it in the future. Like all the Bronte (and Austen) works, they deliver additional insights on every re-reading.
From AI! - 'Growing a Family in Persimmon Hollow' is the title of a historical romance novel by author Gerri Bauer, part of her Persimmon Hollow Legacy series. The book tells the fictional story of a 19th-century woman exiled to a Central Florida frontier town who finds love, community and faith, and grows a family despite hardship. The series is set in the fictional town of Persimmon Hollow ... a place of community, faith, and family life in the 1890s.
(The books don't have to be read in order. Each can be read as a stand-alone.)
