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The Museum of Ordinary People: The uplifting new novel from the bestselling author of Half a World Away

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Alex, Jess's best friend Luce, Jess's old neighbours Dougie and Maggie, the museum helpers Dec, Paul and Angel - all had interesting and distinct personalities.

An old set of encyclopedias leads a young woman to a curious museum and one profoundly moving lesson: that every life is an extraordinary life. I really enjoyed this book, it is filled with heart, humor, love, and learning how to find inner strength after loss and change. How to explain that I wanted to put as much love and care into the taking apart of my wonderful mum’s home as had been poured into bringing it all together in the first place?My own family came to this country in the 50s and 60s from the Caribbean and they too settled in and around the Northampton area, so I found myself loving Jess immediately. The Museum of ordinary things by Mike Gayle is a beautifully written and thought-provoking book from the author. Mike Gayle has the most wonderful gift in that he can tap into all those things we dearly desire but rarely say out loud and he has the ability to make us feel everything that his characters are going through. I bet you’re sitting reading this right now, thinking of an item you would gladly have given to the museum for it to be preserved.

At least make it believable if the MC is gonna be stuck in a shitty relationship, this just felt pointless. The whole idea of a museum that features ordinary items from ordinary people with sentimental value for them alone was touching and appealing. He has written for a variety of publications including The Sunday Times, the Guardian and Cosmopolitan.The idea of bringing this museum to life lifted her out of her darkness, giving her a lifeline to a future she hadn’t imagined.

As Jess’s dreams of working in a museum begin to take shape, there are other aspects of her life that she needs to take into account– her friendship with Alex, the cracks in her relationship with Guy, a revelation about her identity of her father that could fracture some of the most important relationships in her life – a lot is going on in Jess’s life and we feel invested in her journey as tries to navigate her way through the changes in her life. Encouraged by the popularity and praise for Mike Gayle’s work I decided to read The Museum of Ordinary People despite the fact that the premise has more than a few similarities to Ruth Hogan’s The Keeper of Lost Things.The characters in this one fell flat for me, the charming concept ended up being far less heartwarming than i’d hoped, the middle was long and repetitive, and random storylines were thrown into the ending purely for shock/entertainment value. When Jess first visits the place, she meets the new owner, Alex Brody, who didn’t even yet know of its existence. So despite it being a very overwhelmingly huge undertaking, the notes inserted some laughs and nostalgia into the process.

I don’t know whether or not Gayle was writing from personal experience but there were many times in the book when I was nodding in agreement at some of the emotions that Jess was experiencing.

And we do this in the hope that the lives and the stories of the people these seemingly unremarkable things once belonged to will be treasured and remembered long after they’re gone. In this “pure, unadulterated feel-good” and warmhearted novel, an old set of encyclopedias leads a young woman to a curious museum and one profoundly moving lesson: that every life is an extraordinary life ( Kirkus ). Since then he has written thirteen novels including Mr Commitment, Turning Thirty and The Man I Think I Know. I wonder if they’ll take my battered copy of Wind the Willows, a seventh birthday present from and signed by my father and a well worn one eyed teddy bear?

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