Blossoming Almond Branch in a Glass with a Book, Vincent van Gogh,1888, oil on canvas, Arles, France.
August tends to feel momentous. One notices a feeling in the air. There’s a birthday. There’s the end of summer that’s so sad and sweet at the same time. There’s the garden harvest that’s now or never. There’s loose ends to tie up. The beginning of school is just around the corner.
I love it and it makes me feel mildly anxious at the same time. But I will carry on with my usual book reviews. I hope a book today strikes your fancy, your mood, or your tendency!
All the Beauty in the World: WOTY
All the Beauty in the World by Patrick Bringley, 2023, memoir, 240 pages
Patrick Bringley thought his life’s work and ambition lay in the offices of the New Yorker. Then his older brother became ill and died at age 28. Seeking a retreat from the corporate world, and from the harsh realities of death, he quit his job and applied as a guard at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here, with no corporate ladder to climb and no promotions he found time to process the beauty and tragedy of life. He got paid to go nowhere and do nothing, other than give directions and remind people not to touch.
“When in June of 2008, Tom died, I applied for the most straightforward job I could think of in the most beautiful place I knew. This time, I arrive at the Met with no thought of moving forward. My heart is full, my heart is breaking, and I badly want to stand still awhile.”
During his ten years at the Met, ‘doing nothing and going nowhere’, he deepened his appreciation for the wide collection of art at one of the largest museums in the world. He also cultivated friendships among among his fellow guards.
“At the Met, I knew guards who have commanded a frigate in the Bay of Bengal, driven a taxi, piloted a commercial airliner, framed houses, farmed, taught kindergarten, walked a beat as a cop, reported a beat for a newspaper, and painted facial features on department store mannequins. They are from five continents and five boroughs…and remarkably, it doesn’t feel disorienting to stand on points with just about any of them. The ice is already broken. We’re wearing the same clothes. “
Mixed together with his stories about art, the various visitor ‘types’ and fellow guards, we learn about Mr. Bringley’s childhood and Tom’s illness.
I listened to the audio, read by the author. He is an excellent audio reader and has a gentle humor that I enjoyed. I highly recommend this book especially if you are interested in art.
The Gardner Heist: another WOTY book
The Gardner Heist The True Story of the World’s Largest Unsolved Art Theft by Ulrich Boser, 2009, 224 pages
Long ago, while looking for famous paintings to hang in the school library, I happened to see this painting in an art book and in moments it had moved me to tears. None of the pictures I have seen since seem to be as high quality as that first view, and I decided I wanted to see it in real life someday. Then I learned it was stolen in 1990 and hasn’t been seen since. It was the one painting I wanted to stand in front of, if I ever got the chance to see it.
The Storm on the Sea of Galilee, Rembrandt
Very early on March 18, 1990, two men broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. They were there for just over and hour and carted away over a dozen masterpieces. Art Detective Harold Smith was obsessed with the case and followed thousands of leads. A $5 million reward was offered. And in the passing years, none of the art has been recovered.
After Harold Smith died, Ulrich Boser took up the case. He explores the art underworld, examines a shady cast of characters, and reviews the life of Isabella Stewart Gardner herself. It’s a tale a beauty and greed, of obsession and loss and mystery.
I enjoyed this book too. True crime is not my usual genre and so often it seemed they had so much evidence for this or that suspect. But the intricacies of how gangs and black markets work, the rules for having hard evidence and the deviousness of the theives (and sometimes the court system or the ‘stings’) creates a web that cannot be easily untangled. At least it hasn’t been yet.
Currently the reward stands at $10 million, so if you happen to see the above painting, let the right people know!
The Wildflower’s Workbook: more WOTY
The Wildflower’s Workbook by Katie Daisy, an artist.
Reading the last few weeks has felt rushed and disciplinary. I love to plan my reading (I am likely a purposeful reader) but I took a break in August, since it is my birthday month. There were some books I didn’t finish, I slowed way down, and I started a nature journal just for fun. Towards the end of August I started another classic, but I’m a long, long ways from finished.
The Wildflower’s Workbook is beautiful. Too beautiful. For the first while, I was scared to write in it. My handwriting wasn’t pretty enough, my thoughts weren’t quaint and whimsical enough. I feared I was more of a cottage garden flower than a wild flower! But the book isn’t complete unless you fill it in, so I wrote my name on the blank given and started. Every page is colorful with flowers, trees, mushrooms, bugs, nature quotes and completely frivolous prompts. They feel frivolous now as I am just starting, anyway. We’ll see how it goes.
You can get it from Thriftbooks. You can get it on Amazon. Maybe you would like to do some nature journaling this fall, too.
Happy end of August to all who read. You can expect some fall reading inspirations and recommendations in the next post.
–Liz
P. S. If September is a new beginning, here’s some more inspiration.
22 Immediate Results of Exercise
So She Reads 