REVIEW: All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley (4-stars)

 <B>A quiet, contemplative memoir that lingers like a painting after you've left the gallery.</B>

I really appreciated All the Beauty in the World—not just for its premise, but for Patrick Bringley's intentionality. After the loss of his brother, he chose to leave behind 40 empty hours a week in an office and instead take a job as a guard at the Met—a role many would dismiss as idle, but which he embraced as a way to grieve, observe, and heal.

Bringley’s reflections are gentle and observant. He doesn’t dramatize his pain, but lets it echo through his descriptions of art, routine, and human connection. Some reviewers have wished for more vulnerability, but I found his restraint to be part of the book’s quiet power. He listens, watches, and learns—not just about the art, but about the people around him and the eras that shaped the works he guards.

The book occasionally rambles, and I did find myself wishing for accompanying photos to match the artwork he describes. I listened to the audiobook at 2x speed—its pacing felt slow, though that may be more a production issue than a fault of the writing.

Still, there’s so much to admire. Bringley stayed in this role for ten years. He grew older than his brother had been, started a family, and built a circle of friends in what sounds like a surprisingly wholesome and supportive environment. His observations about artists—like Michelangelo’s early missteps or the practical struggles of funding art—add texture and humility to the grandeur of the Met.

The final chapter, on the quilts of Gee’s Bend, was especially moving. One quilter, born in 1942, told Bringley she didn’t even like sewing—she made quilts because no one else could supply enough to keep her family warm. That honesty, that necessity, reminded me that art isn’t always about inspiration. Sometimes it’s about survival.

I’m currently procrastinating on assembling blocks into a quilt top myself—and somehow, this book made me feel okay about that. It reminded me that beauty lives in the quiet moments, in the routines, and in the spaces we choose to inhabit with care.

REVIEW: All the Beauty in the World: The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Me by Patrick Bringley 

RATING: 4-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Uncultured: A Memoir by Daniella Mestyanek Young (2-stars)

 <i>Uncultured</i> is a memoir that spans an extraordinary life — from growing up in the Children of God cult to serving in the U.S. Army. Daniella Mestyanek Young’s story is undeniably compelling, but the book’s uneven tone, narrative gaps, and ethical ambiguities make it a challenging read.

The memoir feels like three different books stitched together. The childhood section is written with novelistic flair — vivid and emotionally intense. The high school and college years are more fragmented, while the Army section shifts into a procedural tone. This inconsistency makes it hard to stay immersed in the story.

Young’s portrayal of her first husband, Jeff, is particularly troubling. She admits to illegally recording a phone call in which he allegedly planned to accuse her of adultery — a serious claim, complicated by her own retaliatory accusation that he was gay. She also describes how he would tear her down when she looked “too pretty,” painting a picture of emotional manipulation, but the narrative feels one-sided and unresolved.

The memoir is saturated with references to body image — from her constant hunger to her fixation on achieving a “condom full of bones” physique, a phrase she repeats to describe the ideal Army runner’s body. These moments are raw and revealing, likely rooted in her childhood experiences of abuse and perfectionism, but they’re also jarring and sometimes feel unprocessed.

Young’s repeated efforts to avoid being perceived as queer in the Army — including her use of slurs — have drawn criticism. While the language is uncomfortable, it reflects the real fear and pressure of serving under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell.” Still, the book doesn’t fully grapple with the implications of these choices, leaving readers to fill in the moral gaps.

Young briefly acknowledges the pervasive rape culture in the Army — including a chilling moment when her superior advises her to “not get raped” before deployment. But rather than exploring this systemic misogyny in depth, she seems to accept it as the cost of being a woman in uniform — until she doesn’t. Her own choices, including engaging in physical relationships with coworkers while trying to maintain a facade of professionalism, are presented without much reflection. These contradictions are never fully unpacked, and the memoir misses an opportunity to critically examine how women navigate — and sometimes internalize — the very systems that oppress them.

While Young’s courage in telling her story is undeniable, she often positions herself as an authority — not just on her own life, but on leadership, cults, and trauma psychology. By the end of the book, she claims “35 years of study of leaders and cults,” a statement that strains credibility given her upbringing in an environment that actively suppressed access to education and outside information. This kind of overreach contributes to a sense that she’s not just telling her story — she’s trying to control its interpretation, which can make her feel like an unreliable narrator.

In so many of the cases of her adult trials -- the threats from Jeff, alleged rape by the man she was dating while on deployment, the missing cell phone of her subordinate, the brain tumor symptoms (after she said she spent months researching right in the text) -- the corroborating evidence is missing, making many of these things one sided.

Uncultured is a story of survival, but it’s also a story that raises as many questions as it answers. The memoir’s uneven tone, ethical gray areas, and lack of introspective depth make it a frustrating read at times. Still, it offers a rare window into the psychological aftermath of cult life and the institutional trauma of the military — even if it doesn’t always do so with clarity or grace.

REVIEW: Uncultured: A Memoir by Daniella Mestyanek Young 

RATING: 2-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: The Sensitive Ones: Healing and Understanding Your Child's Mental Health by Heather Nardi (2-stars)

I really enjoyed reading this book about the author's journey to find a path forward with her daughter's very young diagnosis of mental health issues at the age of 8 years old.  

The key recommendations are sound:  listen to your intuition, listen to your child, listen to your family, learn to be resilient and find comfort, strength and courage in modalities that feel right to you (within reason).

The book repeated a lot of information and I felt as though the author perpetuated some negative stereotypes or information even as she extolled the value of her own personal spiritual journey.  While she relates the story of a shift in her daughter at age 14 after being sent off to an in-patient clinical setting as having blossomed and grown into a highly sensitive empath, she still continues to refer to her daughter as having mental health issues.  

I felt like the author should choose -- is this a person with a mental health issue -- or is this a misunderstood sensitive empath? Sure, it can be both - but it seems to me that if she's quit all her medications, quit therapy and is using crystals and flower essences and coping mechanisms for resilience, maybe she isn't and never was suffering a mental health issue?

The author relates a story about how a social worker sent to her home interviewed her and said "I think that it's your parenting that is causing these issues."  The author was destroyed by this assessment - but then goes on to describe how her husband's more structured parenting style and her own laissez-faire style created confusion for her daughter and resulted in some of the behavior that was observed.  So, maybe, yes -- this was the result of contradictory parenting styles.  It's better to find out sooner than later -- and, I should imagine, if she's so self-aware and open minded that she's willing to seek out a medium and the advice of angels or ghosts, she might also be willing to examine how her own behavior and choices had an impact on her daughter. 

REVIEW: The Sensitive Ones: Healing and Understanding Your Child's Mental Health by Heather Nardi

RATING: 2-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Dodging Energy Vampires: An Empath’s Guide to Evading Relationships That Drain You and Restoring Your Health and Power by Christiane Northrup (3-stars)

 Reading this book is like having a long chat with a very well informed confidante rather than a medical or psychology book.  I feel like a I have a strong sense of what the author is trying to achieve -- and she has a lot of good advice in this book, illustrated with stories from her life and her friends lives.  Yes, it's true - there's some woo-woo new age stuff in here but for the most part:  nothing in this book will cause harm or injury to anyone who practices her advice.  You might slightly alienate some of your friends and family if you start talking about violet flames and such -- those people can be just as annoying as the narcissists they are trying to avoid. 

The latter half of the book focuses more on self-care and offers a ton of practical advice.  I really like the advice about morning meditation and picturing all the things that can go right, and evening meditation to think about what you can learn throughout the day.  Her description of the benefits of deep breathing through the nose and the way that it stimulates the vagus nerve and shuts down negative self talk generated by your reptile brain is effective at a lay person's level.  

Christiane Northrup is a well educated and well intentioned writer and educator -- but she's also a very big business.  She has a ton of books and videos on her website, but she doesn't self promote herself as a consultant or reference her own books in this book.  Instead, she refers to a lot of other authors -- crediting them for their original ideas.  I found it charming that she referred to the person I most associate with horoscopes in the free local weekly newspaper as a "philosopher"  (Rob Brezsny authors "Free Will Astrology" and a book called "Pronoia").   

Most notably - she's wholeheartedly embraced quite a lot of pseudoscience, generally.  This book comprises a lot of hokum (ie "vampires") but has some good tips buried in what should essentially be a blog post.

The book boils down to the following:  defining and teaching the reader to identify psychic vampires (or narcissists); learning how to create healthy boundaries and distance from those people, and how to avoid them in the future.  Next, she discusses how to find support among people who are not narcissists and how to rebuild one's self-esteem and establish routines for self-care, including focusing on positive news and other inputs (ie, avoid violent/negative films).  All in all - good messages.

REVIEW: Dodging Energy Vampires: An Empath’s Guide to Evading Relationships That Drain You and Restoring Your Health and Power by Christiane Northrup 

RATING: 3-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Outpost: A Diplomat at Work by Christopher R. Hill (3-stars)

 I get the feeling that Chris Hill loves to write and keep notes -- and much like my MA thesis, without really strong feedback from an editor (or two), folks like us run the risk of putting in too much material without a strong focus or even ensuring that everything included is actually interesting to a broader audience.

Ambassador Hill has had a VERY interesting career -- he even is able to encapsulate it (on page 317 of 430) effectively when he talks about sitting through a nomination hearing in the Senate:

"[...] I was running a grainy slide show in my head of things I had done in the course of my government career.  Peace Corps, the Solidarity movement in Poland, reporting on democracy demonstrations in South Korea in the spring of 1987, meeting in remote prison work camps with the families of political prisoners in Albania in 1991, gaining access to mass graves in Bosnia in 1995, meeting with displaced persons in central Kosovo and helping to provide them with food and shelter in the summer of 1998, a midnight visit to the Stenkovac refugee camp to protect Roma under attack from angry gangs of Kosovo refugees, working (quietly and effectively) with Chinese officials to allow North Korean refugees to get out of the diplomatic compound in Shenyang on to new homes in South Korea, convincing Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen to release immediately Kem Sokha and other arrested members of the human rights movement."

One could make a really interesting set of stories based on those highlights and still have enough space to discuss how the career impacted him personally (emotionally) and what it was like moving around a wife and family as a Foreign Service Officer.

Some of the stories are very funny and interesting:  talking about being in Skopje when protestors decided to attack, using the flag pole as a battering ram.  Everyone inside took shelter in a safe room in the basement -- cracking jokes, even when riot police arrived and knocked on the door of the vault (could be a Land Shark!) and even one Czech reporter named Bijana who was DYING to light up her cigarette.  That was a good anecdote!

Another good anecdote was showing up at midnight at the refugee camp to extricate a Roma family was also very inspiring.   Another good anecdote involves preventing his driver from being kidnapped conscripted by rebel forces:

“I owe you a beer for that.” He kept his eyes on the road, driving at breakneck speed, and said softly in a very sober tone, “Bottle of whiskey.”

Unfortunately, this is not followed up with discussion of measures taken after that incident to avoid endangering his local employees/staff in such situations.

Tips on working as an FSO include:

"Airplane flights always allowed for the best staff meetings even though there was no table and people had to perch on seats facing the wrong way or sit on the floor of the aircraft to hear."  

His boss overreacted when someone was late to a meeting, and his internal dialogue went like this:

On the one hand I thought that at forty-three I was a little too old to be screamed at in a way that I hadn’t heard since childhood.

On the other hand, I composed myself long enough to think about the unimaginable pressure he was under.

This is a great example of self-awareness and avoiding escalating a situation - and after his boss yelled at him, the late arrival walked in the door excusing himself due to bad traffic.

Tips on talking to the press during negotiations:

"Avoid citing what the other side is saying in negotiation. They could simply deny it or say something even more difficult to live with after you have called them out on it. And don’t talk specifics and certainly don’t engage in speculation or hypothetical questions.  Beyond that, there is much that can be discussed."

Tips on changing verbiage in agreements that have been approved for two weeks -- pass it off as a translation error, and make sure you have a wingman:

“Really, ‘exist peacefully together’ is much better English. Ambassador Randt, don’t you think so?” “Absolutely.” (Memo to self: buy that man a beer.)"

He goes into a hilarious <i>Lord of the Rings</i> fugue when Hillary Clinton calls him to a meeting to ask him to take on the assignment of Iraq, finding himself in a friendly meeting "as if I were a sort of Foreign Service Bilbo Baggins at the conclusion of my adventures."  He jokes "Oh my God, Iraq, the real fire of Mordor, wait! I thought dealing with North Korea was the fire of Mordor!?"

His wry observations of Foreign Service worker motivations for working in Iraq are ascribed to specific motivations or career goals:  Arabists who want to tick off a box; a place of penance where previous errors made in one's professional career could be absolved; folks close to retirement building their nest egg with the extra hazard pay.  This is funny stuff!

He talks about the generosity of others from time to time - after accepting the assignment, on the way out of that meeting, then goes into another great anecdote (and reading list) where he passed someone in the hall who recognized him as the  new appointee: "...just met someone on the other end of the sixth floor whom I had never laid eyes on before, but who opened up his heart and his bookshelf to make sure I was going to get off to a good start."  

I love the subtle and not so subtle criticisms of folks -- he presents Cheney as a pitiable figure but not effective, while Biden is earthy and engaged.  

The concluding chapter gives great information that summarizes his perspectives on diplomacy and development:

"Finding practical answers to tough problems seems to take a backseat to ideology. Nowhere is this issue more pronounced than in weighing the rapid imposition of democracy against more evolving change."

"...human rights are not identical with democracy, which is a system of governance, certainly the best to protect those values."

"...in a country’s choice of governance, we would do well to lower our voices and offer our help when asked."

"...diplomacy is not a continuation of war by other means."

Hill also cautions against oversharing on social media -- not everything needs to be shared, and we don't have to be transparent about everything we know.

Ironically... that filter did not apply to some of the content of his book.  Now here's the stuff I didn't like:  filler and padding.  There is so much filler in the form of excess and uninteresting detail.  Like - do we really need to know the details of open bathroom doors and toilet seats left up in Holbrook's private office bathroom during Hall's first meeting?  Or mundane details about arriving at the curb on East Forty-Seventh side entrance of the Waldorf-Astoria, hallways crowded with housekeeping carts as they exited the 35th floor and someone launched an assault on a saran-wrap covered tray of appetizers? Or who asked for 2 drinks after a long dehydrating flight from his host?  I find these things excessively dishy - like referring to Condi Rice at "her petulant best." That seems to imply she got her way by acting childish.

Other times - he drops in an interesting detail that he didn't fully realize, such as "I was not surprised by the call, having been tipped off that it was coming."  Wait? Someone calls and tells you  you're getting a big fat promotion and you know this going to the meeting -- that call and an emotional reaction would have been interesting!

Sometimes it seems like he's writing more for a screenplay and providing guidance for stage direction.  He repeatedly mentions "store bought" fatigues or camo in the discussions with revolutionaries.  I beg an explanation -- what's the alternative? Being part of an army where $12MM USD is loose change found in sofa cushions and you have bespoke camo patterns and uniforms produced? I didn't understand the point of this detail. 

Hall does provide historical background information -- sometimes it feels like larger context is missing.  There are longs stretches of excruciating detail of back and forth minutiae -- like in the negotiations with Serbia and with North Korea.   Those were probably based on personal notes from his trips there but I found them to be too much detail without broader context.

Another nit:   9/11 - it's mentioned 3 times in the entire book.  I guess it had little impact to  his negotiations in other areas? To his life? How did people respond in the embassy where he was stationed at the time?  It is such a major event to give so little attention. 

Finally - why is it that the word "cigarette" is mentioned more frequently than the names of his family all tolled?  I want to know more about the balance of family and professional life. What was it like where he lived in different places -- did his wife and kids travel with him to every assignment?  

There are a few mentions of visits with his kids:  his son went to boarding school; in one move, his daughter said she was proud of him but he was ruining her life; another funny anecdote has his daughter Clara recommending dropping bombs. 

Many of us are very interested in learning what it's LIKE to live as a FSO for decades -- not just filling in stories to fit the facts or providing observations that don't contribute to a better understanding of the situations or people.  I'd trade all the filler for more personal observations about Ambassador Hill's personal preferences and experiences (like the story about a colleague bartering for cheap socks in Chinese). 

Overall, I'm glad I read the book -- it was a lot more work than it should have been and makes me wonder about the rave reviews.  Perhaps more folks are serious political wonks familiar with the details and delighted by the blow-by-blow of some of the negotiations.  YMMV!

REVIEW: Outpost: A Diplomat at Work by Christopher R. Hill 

RATING: 3-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter (2-stars)

 I really wanted to like this book -- the author's voice and personality shine through her writing very clearly.  She seemed like a snotty, self-important, shrill and unbalanced person.  I kept reading, hoping that the author would undergo some transformation that would redeem her, and thinking that perhaps she wasn't as self centered as she made herself sound -- but when it got to the section about how demanding and rude she was to the woman who butchered her pigs -- I realized:  the author is just a bossy, self-centered, judgmental hipster who can't even keep the streets straight (the Temescal street with the upscale Mexican, wood fired oven pizza and bakery is Telegraph, not Shattuck) because she's too busy obsessing over whatever non-existent drama she's invented for herself.  

Seriously?  Ghetto?  I know plenty of people who live off MLK Jr in the 25-33 range -- it's not what I'd call a "ghetto" and I don't know anyone who lives there who would refer to it as such as often as this cracker hipster does.

REVIEW: Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer by Novella Carpenter 

RATING: 2-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

REVIEW: The Wild Muir: Twenty-Two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures by John Muir (5-stars)

 Purchased as an impulse at some park bookstore in the past couple of years, I am so glad I finally sat down to finish this book! It's like a box of chocolates, packed with novel delights - each just as delicious as the other, making it hard to decide which you like best.  The book lacks the excessive, hyperbole laden introductions that typically accompany this sort of thing.  The editor includes a brief paragraph or two to introduce each selection and provide context, along with a nice timeline of Muir's life at the back.  

There's even the inclusion of an article written by a man who accompanied Muir on a hike - and another report showing someone else's view of the same incident.  All in all, showing that Muir's physical fitness must have been quite unusual even for today because he rarely mentions any difficulties on climbs and gives the appearance to the onlooker of a fleet footed gazelle prone to bouts of "amatory botany."  It's funny - I rather had a picture of Muir as somewhat kin of Doctor Who - very intelligent, constantly moving and going and exploring, not really getting upset or stressed out about any scraps: falling ass over teakettle and knocking himself senseless or going snowblind didn't seem to upset him.  All the while admiring, enthusiastically appreciating and overflowing with joy at the amazing lovely wonderful things around him.  

I think one of my favorite stories was about the tree ride because I share this fascination with wind and could totally see the movement of the trees he described.  I most envy his description of the aurora borealis events - never having seen one.  The little dog going along on the hike was a fantastic tale, too.  I quite relished his constant descriptions of the quality of light - and the anthropomorphization - describing "badgers, marmots and other small people who live on the mountain."  

Now, I wish I could hear his voice - so I am going to have to go find some proper Scottish indie films to get that in my head for the next time I read something by Muir.

REVIEW: The Wild Muir: Twenty-Two of John Muir's Greatest Adventures by John Muir 

RATING: 5-stars

© Jennifer R Clark. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. You may share and adapt this content with proper attribution.

A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers (2-stars)

 After so many enthusiastic recommendations to read this book - I finally picked up a copy.  It took me nearly 2 years to just sit down and read it.  As a former languages major - I'm accustomed to reading books with an open mind, and always finish books even if I don't like them very well.

While the content of AHWOSG is neither heartbreaking, nor genius - there are definitely some funny laugh-out-loud moments.  Mostly I felt like I was looking into the inner workings of a bipolar adolescent.  I've had bipolar friends describe "racing thoughts" as one of their symptoms - after reading this book, I suspect that this is what they mean.

I've read some articles by Eggers - they were funny. This book definitely falls within the bounds of "experimental literature."  The techniques employed include: extreme stream-of-consciousness, interweaving stories from different events/places every other paragraph, Q&A interview, characters in the book going "out of character" and addressing the author's character as an author instead of a character, and way way too much information about minutiae inside and outside the author's head.

Other authors have done this sort of thing - better - but Eggers is capturing a specific circumstance as well as a time and place.  Honestly - working in San Francisco's South of Market during the first dot-com boom - he was part of the "cool kids" group - the self-appointed digital elite.  Those guys were annoying, arrogant and pretentious enough in person 15 years ago.  Reading this makes me wonder if they all shouldn't have been on Ritalin.

The specific stories: sibling relationships, being with his mom through the end of her illness & her death, disposing of her remains, pursuing his dad's friend to learn more about his dad (as well as revelations about his dad's alcoholism), his obsession with sex (seriously? do we have to know?), his tremendous love for his little brother, his relationship with a substance abusing friend... all these are valid, worthwhile and interesting stories.

However - his technique gets in the way of his stories.  Even his panic or paranoia can be funny - he describes these internal dialogues about how people watch him and his brother play games and think they are awesome, or "us vs them" sort of dialogues - but a little bit goes a long way.  "Crime & Punishment" does neurotic/obsessive internal dialogues way better (and over a century before Eggers!).

Unless you're a HUGE fan of Eggers, or a total experimental literature geek - skip this one.  It's not nearly so touching, heartbreaking or genius as many would have you think.