Does this idea intrigue you? If you passed by a museum of ordinary people on your next vacation would you stop inside to see what it’s all about?
I definitely would!
I love all museums but I hold a soft spot in my heart for the small, quirky museums dotted around the countryside. Museums created and maintained by passionate people with a love for a particular subject or part of history. Museums like the Pencil Sharpener Museum, the Windmill Museum, or the Potato Museum.
So it’s no surprise that this book caught my eye.
I can’t remember where I first saw this book, The Museum of Ordinary People by Mike Gayle, but I do know that I immediately added it to my holds list at the local library.
Here’s the official blurb:
Still reeling from the sudden death of her mother, Jess is about to do the hardest thing she’s ever done: empty her childhood home so that it can be sold. As she sorts through a lifetime of memories, everything comes to a halt when she comes across something she just can’t part with: an old set of encyclopedias. To the world, the books are outdated and ready to be recycled. To Jess, they represent love and the future that her mother always wanted her to have.
In the process of finding the books a new home, Jess discovers an unusual archive of letters, photographs, and curious housed in a warehouse and known as the Museum of Ordinary People. Irresistibly drawn, she becomes the museum’s unofficial custodian, along with the warehouse’s mysterious owner. As they delve into the history of objects in their care, they not only unravel heart-stirring stories that span generations and continents, but also unearth long-buried secrets that lie closer to home.
Inspired by an abandoned box of mementos, The Museum of Ordinary People is a poignant novel about memory and loss, the things we leave behind, and the future we create for ourselves.
Museum of Ordinary People by Mike Gayle
What Would Be in Your Museum of Ordinary People?
If you were going to leave something for the Museum of Ordinary People, what would you leave? Jess, the protagonist of the book, was looking for a home for the set of encyclopedias her mother had given her as a child that she spent so many hours reading.
I’m not sure what I’d leave but here are a couple things from my memory trunk…
- Girl Scout pocket knife with colorful braided tassel (so the knife won’t get lost if dropped)
- Junior Girl Scout badge book (I tried so hard to earn every badge in there)
- Skillcraft pen (Dad would bring these home from work sometimes)
- Mixed tape (love songs from my honey!)
- Stone frog (gift from my honey when we were first dating)
- Disney’s Wonderful World of Knowledge book (I had the whole set and like Jess with her encyclopedias, I spent hours reading and learning)
- Mammals pocket ID book (we had several and I enjoyed reading about different species)
- Winnie the Pooh (handmade for me by my godmother)
Visit the Museum
…one day we hope there will be a Museum of Ordinary People in every town, on every High Street, dedicated to honoring the memories of the ordinary people who lived there through the objects they loved.
Museum of ordinary people by mike gayle
The Museum of Ordinary People
“In a twist fit for a thriller,” as Mike said, he was contacted by the founders of a real-life Museum of Ordinary People after completing the book. The museum is currently operating as a pop-up museum but you can follow them on Instagram to stay up-to-date on future museum activity.
You might also enjoy this article about the museum co-founder, Lucy Malone.
But wait… there’s more!!
In researching the Museum of Ordinary People, I also found…
The Museum of Everyday Life
Just down the road from a pond, in northeast Vermont, you will find the Museum of Everyday Life. It’s a self-serve museum – the website reminds you to turn off the lights as you leave – open every day and just waiting for you to visit.
The museum has three parts:
- The Museum of Everyday Life Philosophy Department, involving the production and publication of theoretical writing about people and their relationship to objects, curatorial methodologies, and encyclopedism
- The Museum of Everyday Life Performance Company, which creates puppet shows and performances in an ongoing effort to examine and everyday life via the life of objects
- The Museum of Everyday Life Exhibitions and Collections, lastly but most important, the displays of physical items
Get a sneak peek at the museum with this episode of WildTravels.
Books Featuring Museums
Here are a couple of other books that feature a museum in the plot.
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler
From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs Basil E. Frankweiler was a childhood favorite of mine. I’ve always harbored a dream to also live sneakily in a museum but at this point in my life, I’ve come to terms with the fact that it’s not happening.
Here’s the blurb:
When Claudia decided to run away, she planned very carefully. She would be gone just long enough to teach her parents a lesson in Claudia appreciation. And she would go in comfort-she would live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She saved her money, and she invited her brother Jamie to go, mostly because be was a miser and would have money.Claudia was a good organizer and Jamie bad some ideas, too; so the two took up residence at the museum right on schedule. But once the fun of settling in was over, Claudia had two unexpected problems: She felt just the same, and she wanted to feel different; and she found a statue at the Museum so beautiful she could not go home until she bad discovered its maker, a question that baffled the experts, too.The former owner of the statue was Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler. Without her–well, without her, Claudia might never have found a way to go home.
The Museum of Lost and Found
I recently stumbled across this book, The Museum of Lost and Found, and had to read it. As opposed to living in a museum like Claudia and Jamie in the Mixed-Up Files, Vanessa finds an abandoned museum in her town and creates her own secret, no-adults-allowed, museum inside.
Vanessa walked around and saw the abandoned front desk, where guests must have once purchased tickets.
The abandoned plastic stands that might have once held museum maps. The glass cases, which had once displayed items, lining the walls. Empty picture frames. Pedestals with nothing on them. Exhibits of emptiness.
It was the most fascinating nothing that Vanessa had ever seen.
“It was the most fascinating nothing that Vanessa had ever seen.” For some reason, this line just speaks to me.
And one more great line from the book-
Most things never wound up in museums. Even if they should.
A few more books set in a museum that I haven’t read yet
I haven’t read them yet but these books look interesting!
- Behind the Scenes at the Museum
- The Museum of Extraordinary Things
- The Museum of Things Left Behind
- Fundraising the Dead
- All the Beauty in the World
- The Museum of Nothing
Podcast Featuring Museum Books
And of course there is a podcast episode! Check out the Strong Sense of Place episode all about books set in museums for even more books set in museums!
So if you, too, are feeling inspired by this novel, you can visit a museum of ordinary or maybe even start your own!
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