Guest Post – My Favourite Museums by Meg Leder
I was so excited to be asked to be part of the blog tour for the wonderful Museum Of Heartbreak by Meg Leder!
The Museum Of Heartbreak is released on 7th June 2016 published by Scholastic and is a YA Contemporary Romance which we heard about at the Scholastic Bloggers Book Feast earlier this here ( you can find that post here ).
Hearing about the book made me so excited to read it and I have been lucky enough to have received a copy for review which should follow shortly.
A huge thank you to Olivia at Scholastic for having me on this wonderful tour and for sending me the book to read and review!
For my stop on the blog tour I have a brilliant guest post from Meg Leder about her favourite Museums.
Penelope is a pretty regular sixteen year old girl living in New York City. Except for a few run-ins with her nemesis Cherisse, high school has been fairly drama free …until the day that Keats shows up at school. Handsome, charming, but with an edge, Keats comes in and upends everything. Faced with her first break-up, and her first heartbreak, Penelope decides to put together a collection to tell her story and help her sort out her feelings. Featuring a spectrum of artefacts that chronicle the lives of the curator, her best friends, her first boyfriend and some dinosaurs, the Museum of Heartbreak explores the giddy confusion, inevitable sadness and sheer joy of growing up and falling in love.
My Favourite Museums
In my novel The Museum of Heartbreak, my main character Penelope creates a museum to remember what she’s lost and to get over her own heartbreak. She also has a parent who works at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, so she’s lucky enough to get a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the museum.
Because museums figure so prominently in the book, I thought I’d share a list my favorite museums—both traditional and quirky…
Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles
Photo Credit to Museum Of Jurassic Technology
I’ve been to this museum twice, and I’m still not entirely sure what it is. It’s not particularly Jurassic or technological, and it makes a point of keeping its exact focus as mysterious as the dim lighting. I’ve seen everything there from exhibits on folk remedies and trailer park art to sculpture presented on the head of pins.
The Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, England
Photo Credit to The Pitt Rivers Museum
My college roommate Amy and I visited this marvellous place in our early twenties. It was the first time either of us had been outside of the country. I didn’t think I could fall more in love with England, and then I found this museum. It’s like walking into a literal curiosity cabinet.
The Funeral Carriage Museum in Barcelona
Photo Credit to Funeral Carriage Museum
When Amy and I hang out, we make it a point to seek out weird museums. This one is in the basement of a funeral home, and the curator had to turn on the lights for us—we were the only two visiting. But inside, there’s a marvellous range of beautiful old funeral carriages.
Museum of Broken Relationships in Los Angeles
Photo Credit to Museum Of Broken Relationships
I became aware of this new museum a few months ago—it’s dedicated to failed relationships and includes artefacts donated from lovelorn people around the world. It is literally a museum of heartbreak! It’s most definitely on my list for my next visit to LA. I think Pen would dig it too.
Lyme Regis Museum in Lyme Regis
Photo Credit to Lyme Regis Museum
This past December, I spent a week writing at a wonderful studio in Lyme Regis. I’d work in the mornings, and then walk around the town after lunch. One day, I spent the afternoon in this gem of a museum, and was delighted to find a great deal of it dedicated to Mary Anning, an early fossil collector and palaeontologist. On that day, I had the museum to myself, and it was lovely to browse, learning more about Mary’s life.
The American Museum of Natural History
Photo Credit to The American Museum of Natural History
Of course, no list about my book would be complete without mentioning the AMNH in NYC. A few years ago I got a behind-the-scenes tour of the museum, and it was one of the most magical things I’ve ever gotten to do. While the public part of the museum is amazing, I was in awe of all what it’s like behind the displays. The building is full of old wooden drawers and book shelves and specimens with spidery handwritten tags and closets full of leopard skins. I even got to visit the attic where they used to store elephant skulls, which I worked into The Museum of Heartbreak. I don’t know that my book would exist in its current form without that amazing visit!
You can buy a copy of The Museum Of Heartbreak here or from your local bookshop.
About Meg Leder
Meg Leder is a book editor in New York City. She is the author of The Complete Handbook of Novel Writing YA author of the MUSEUM OF HEARTBREAK and her work has appeared in The Bellingham Review and Writer’s Digest.
Meg is the owner of a sweet jerk cat named Tim Riggins.
You can follow Meg on Twitter using @megleder
Blog Tour
You can catch up of follow this fab blog tour at the below stops!
A huge thank you to Meg for a fab guest post and to Olivia at Scholastic for organising!
Have you read The Museum Of Heartbreak? What did you think? Are you tempted to grab a copy? Do you have a favourite Museum? I would love to hear from you! Why not leave a comment using the reply button at the top of this review or tweet me on twitter using @chelleytoy!
Happy Reading!
