I keep thinking about the Correspondent. This week it is because there is an narrating character that reminds me a bit of Sybil Van Antwerp. (Audiobooks in both cases)
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I just finished Patrick Bringley’s “All the Beauty in the World” about the years he spent as a guard at the Met following the death of his older brother. I was touched by his reason for leaving his position at The New Yorker:
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.
He spent ten years standing still, grieving among some of the world’s most beautiful treasures. The book is a compilation of his internal thoughts on the works he guarded, the public he watched, and how both helped him, eventually, learn to move forward. I found it an uplifting, astonishing read.
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@ChoatieMom : I read that book a year or so ago and really enjoyed it. I also had an opportunity to see Bringley’s one-man show based on the book. It was really well done and very poignant. I have an entirely different view of museum guards now!!
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Same. I also have a very different view of mail carriers after reading Stephen Grant’s book, “The Mailman,” which I also highly recommend.
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I recently saw him interview the author of Mona’s Eyes (Barnes & Noble’s Book of the Year, 2025). They had a wonderful rapport and were charming, smart, and touching. I would love to visit a museum with them.
I can’t wait to read Mona’s Eyes, but between my book club and Libby holds coming through, I haven’t been able to get to it.
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I’m not sure if these two books have been mentioned before: 84, Charing Cross Road (especially if you enjoyed The Correspondent), and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
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I just finished Doris Kearns Goodwin’s “An Unfinished Love Story: A Personal History of the 1960s.” Wow. I’d never heard of her husband, Richard Goodwin, but he was there at every critical moment in that tumultuous decade putting words in the mouths of JFK, LBJ, McCarthy, RFK and others as speech writer, political advisor, activist, friend, mentor, and rebel. (He even wrote Gore’s concession speech after the 2000 election recount.) I came away thinking he was the intellectual version of Forest Gump, always in the famous photo but not the main subject.
Even though I lived through that decade, I was too young and shielded to understand or pay attention to what was happening in our national public life. I read a lot of books now about that critical decade to belatedly understand how our nation was being shaped while I was jumping rope and riding my bike. This book provides a behind-the-curtain perspective from Richard’s and Doris’s personal front-row experiences in the Kennedy and Johnson administrations. Truly worth reading.
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I listened to the audio book and was really impressed. We need more books (and people) like this. I did think the book could have had a different title.
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Thanks for the rec. downloaded the audiobook for my commute.
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The first time I heard of Richard Goodwin was in the movie Quiz Show where he was played by Rob Morrow.
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That is part of the book, and I saw the movie when it came out, but did not remember him. But, man, does he have a legacy! And what a dynamite couple.
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Doris is a gem and I always like listening to her (places like Meet the Press). I remember her comparing the things Kennedy got away with (mistresses, Marilyn Monroe) and which Clinton did not, and she said “the boys on the bus were no longer BOYS on the bus.” (although she was a boy on the bus in 1960, I don’t think she took crap from the politicians, but she didn’t report the misdeeds).
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For the politics part of the book, I especially enjoyed the relationship between Doris and LBJ/family, which continued after his presidency. But the Doris/Richard story was quite interesting too. (Coincidentally when I was reading about his Falmouth MA vacation between cancer treaments, my Falmouth BIL was dealing with similar.)
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Has anyone read and then watched “People We Meet on Vacation”?? While the book was pretty well loved, I have not read one good review of the movie.
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I have read all of Emily Henry’s books. I enjoyed the movie, but my expectation was only for a weekend distraction from the real world. At least they didn’t change the ending like the movie My Oxford Year did. That Netflix movie left me angry since I had enjoyed the book and was expecting the same ending.
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I don’t know if anyone remembers My Sister’s Keeper. The movie completely flipped the ending from the book! Picoult and many of the book’s fans did not like the movie ending.
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And let’s not get started on the movie atrocity of “The Scarlet Letter.”
You mean it was originally a book? 
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I am almost done reading Real Americans, a novel by Rachel Khong. Excellent! It would be a good book club pick, here or elsewhere.
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I watched that the other night (hadn’t read the book). Once they got to the point where I could see where the ending was heading I googled for spoilers because I could only watch it if it went one way. Since it didn’t, I stopped right there.
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