Non-Fiction Book Discussion: All the Beauty in the World

In November, the the Cupertino Library Adult Nonfiction Book Discussion group will talk about All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and me by Patrick Bringley.(February 2023)

Patrick Bringley was working a prestigious job in Editorial events at the New Yorker Magazine when his beloved brother was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Already disenchanted with hi high pressure job at The New Yorker, Bringley quit and found less emotionally demanding new employment and a kind of refuge as a security guard at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. All the Beauty of the World is a recounting of Bringley’s decade-long employment at the Metropolitan, forging relationships with his co-workers at the museum discovering his own favorite art works, and his encounters with visitors to the museum, from the ghoulish enthusiasm of school children viewing ancient Egyptian mummies, to his appreciation of lost, confused museum goers who stumble upon magnificent artworks they might have missed seeing had they not been lost and confused at that moment. “I think they are right to stumble around the Met discombobulated….None of us knows much about this subject—the world and all of its beauty.”

For accessibility accommodations (ex. ASL), please fill out the online form at sccld.org/accessibility 7+days prior to the event. If you need assistance with the form, speak with a staff member at your local library, call (408) 540-3945, or email us at ask@sccl.org.