This Is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live

by Melody Warnick

Overview

In the spirit of Gretchen Rubin’s megaseller The Happiness Project and Eric Weiner’s The Geography of Bliss, a journalist embarks on a project to discover what it takes to love where you live

The average restless American will move 11.7 times in a lifetime. For Melody Warnick, it was move #6, from Austin, Texas, to Blacksburg, Virginia, that threatened to unhinge her. In the lonely aftermath of unpacking, she wondered: Aren’t we supposed to put down roots at some point? How does the place we live become the place we want to stay? This time, she had an epiphany. Rather than hold her breath and hope this new town would be her family’s perfect fit, she would figure out how to fall in love with it—no matter what.
     How we come to feel at home in our towns and cities is what Warnick sets out to discover in This Is Where You Belong. She dives into the body of research around place attachment—the deep sense of connection that binds some of us to our cities and increases our physical and emotional well-being—then travels to towns across America to see it in action. Inspired by a growing movement of placemaking, she examines what its practitioners are doing to create likeable locales. She also speaks with frequent movers and loyal stayers around the country to learn what draws highly mobile Americans to a new city, and what makes us stay. The best ideas she imports to her adopted hometown of Blacksburg for a series of Love Where You Live experiments designed to make her feel more locally connected. Dining with her neighbors. Shopping Small Business Saturday. Marching in the town Christmas parade.
     Can these efforts make a halfhearted resident happier? Will Blacksburg be the place she finally stays? What Warnick learns will inspire you to embrace your own community—and perhaps discover that the place where you live right now . . . is home.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780698196148
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	06/21/2016
Sold by:	Penguin Group
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
Sales rank:	576,043
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

A freelance journalist for more than a decade, Melody Warnick has written for Reader’s Digest, O: The Oprah Magazine, Redbook, Better Homes and Gardens, Ladies’ Home Journal, Woman’s Day, Parents, and The Atlantic’s CityLab. She lives with her family in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Lost Art of Staying Put 1

Chapter 2 Lace Up Your Sneakers 24

Chapter 3 Buy Local 44

Chapter 4 Say Hi to Your Neighbors 66

Chapter 5 Do Something Fun 90

Chapter 6 Commune with Nature 113

Chapter 7 Volunteer 136

Chapter 8 Eat Local Food 158

Chapter 9 Get More Political 180

Chapter 10 Create Something 199

Chapter 11 Stay Loyal 220

Chapter 12 Settle Down 244

Love Where You Live Principles 257

Acknowledgments 259

Notes 261

Index 299

Editorial Reviews

03/21/2016
Prompted by a move to Blacksburg, Va., for her husband’s job, journalist Warnick set out to discover how a place becomes home, synthesizing research and personal stories into a guide to better appreciating one’s community. She encourages choosing small businesses over big-box retailers, volunteering with local organizations and government, and participating in farmer’s markets and group agricultural programs. Her feel-good stories of community bonding include a Kentucky town rallying to help a beloved grocer save his store and a New York City transplant’s efforts to build an art center in the low-income, hurricane-ravaged upstate N.Y. town of Prattsville. Warnick’s own charming journey finds her sheepishly distributing muffins on “Good Neighbor Day,” learning to embrace Blacksburg’s sports culture, and attempting to become a “regular” at a local restaurant. In the most emotionally affecting chapter, Warnick considers the effects of tragedy on a community, speaking with people displaced by Hurricane Katrina and with Blacksburg residents affected by the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech. Warnick’s sociological research and anecdotal experiments provide an informative and entertaining read, along with an abundance of practical tools for those settling in after a move or just looking to shake things up in their hometown. Agent: Lisa Grubka, Fletcher & Company. (June)

Publishers Weekly

With this book by your side, a happier life is just around the corner.”—Gretchen Rubin, bestselling author of The Happiness Project

"[Warnick's] journey to feeling attached to where she lives is scientific and packed with research, but also feels like an old friend's casual banter. This practical exercise in intentional place-based happiness is for the homesick and the optimistic alike."—Shelf Awareness
 
"Two books in one: a well-researched survey of the literature on place attachment, and a how-to guide for readers wanting to fall in love with where they live."—Library Journal

"A series of research-backed ways to be happy in a new home."—Time

“Where we choose to live is the single most important decision we make. Melody Warnick shows you how to find a place you truly love and even more importantly how to make it your very own. This Is Where You Belong is an important book for so many people out there who are choosing their place to live.”—Richard Florida, author of Who’s Your City? and Rise of the Creative Class

"This Is Where You Belong deconstructs one of the most important decisions a person makes in the new gig economy: where to call home. With boundless curiosity and spirited, seamless prose, Melody Warnick's placemaking manifesto will make you want to be a better neighbor, wanderer, and citizen of the world."—Beth Macy, author of Factory Man

"Between the lines of this marvelous book is a deeper message for those who seek it. Yes, you can find happiness just about anywhere—and Melody Warnick will show you how—but some places are happier than others, and those considering a move would be wise to read these pages first and see where they lead."—Jeff Speck, author, Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time

“A charming, thoughtful book about how to find new joys in your own hometown. With suggestions on walking, buying locally, and visiting farmer’s markets, it’s a reminder that the best place to live can be where you already are.”—Janice Kaplan, New York Times bestselling author of The Gratitude Diaries
 
“Our neighbors are an overlooked but critical resource in so many ways. This great, readable book from Melody Warnick nails why we should all be doing more to invest in our communities and neighborhoods to create more connected, happier, healthier, and safer spaces.”—Daniel P. Aldrich, author of Building Resilience and Site Fights
 
“I live in and write about a small Alaskan town and Melody Warnick quantified so many of the reasons why I love Haines. This must be the best how-to book ever written on how (and why) to love the place you live. Read it and share it, and then go out and make your community better.”—Heather Lende, author of Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-town Obituary Writer
 
"Thoughtful, witty, and engaging, Warnick combines personal anecdotes and thorough research to uncover the power and impact of connecting with the people around you. A fun and worthwhile read.”—Marc J. Dunkelman, visiting fellow at Brown’s Taubman Center for Public Policy and American Institutions, and author of The Vanishing Neighbor
 
“Warnick convincingly argues that one of the most important relationships in your life is with where you live. This book is an empowering guide for anyone who wonders if they will ever feel like they really belong to a community. I already feel more inspired.”—Kelly McGonigal, author of The Upside of Stress

From the Publisher

06/15/2016
When Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz clicks her heels and says, "There's no place like home," she invokes a longing for a particular place. It is this feeling of "place attachment" that journalist Warnick explores in her debut. The author's mission involves more than just understanding the emotion of connection, it is also about trying to determine if there are actions one can take to create attachment. Categorizing people as "movers" and "stayers," Warnick, a self-confessed "mover," delves into the psychology and sociology behind why people become "stayers," bound to one community. What she discovers is not earth-shattering; behaviors such as volunteering, civic engagement, and buying local all lead to a greater sense of belonging. Warnick experiments with these ideas to craft a plan to help her become more integrated into her most recent home of Blacksburg, VA. The result is two books in one: a well-researched survey of the literature on place attachment, and a how-to guide for readers wanting to fall in love with where they live. VERDICT Warnick shifts between sharing her stories and the results of her extensive research, crafting an enjoyable book for anyone who cherishes their hometown as well as for those who don't and would like to do so.—Michael C. Miller, Austin P.L. & Austin History Ctr., TX

Library Journal

Narrator Carrington MacDuffie elevates this production to a fun and motivating listen. Melody Warnick decides she is going to fall in love with her new town, Blacksburg, Virginia, after a transient lifestyle. She conducts experiments to make herself feel more connected, but the strategies all feel a bit obvious: shop locally, join a community supported agriculture group, practice random acts of kindness, volunteer, donate, hike, invite the neighbors for a potluck. With enthusiasm, authenticity, and sheer likability, MacDuffie brings to life the delight of handing out muffins on Good Neighbor Day and wearing cat ears in the town parade, as well as sensitively expressing the impact of the 2007 mass shooting at Virginia Tech on residents of Blacksburg (which occurred before Warnick moved there). You’ll finish listening and then start thinking about what you can do for your community. A.B. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

SEPTEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

2016-05-02
Don't like where you live? Socialize. Volunteer. Make lists. Or you could just move.It was the fact of yet another move that prompted this book, if in a roundabout way. Recounts freelance journalist Warnick, relocating from Austin, Texas, to the cold, rainy hills of southwestern Virginia stirred up some hard thoughts about place and community, thoughts that became harder when circumstances did. "Life in a smaller town was supposed to be simpler, but nothing was easy, not even the easy stuff," she writes. It wasn't just finding a new dentist and picking out a pediatrician, but also building friendships and connections to the place—a challenge that all too many of us know, since, by the author's reckoning, the average American moves about a dozen times over a lifetime. So what to do? Warnick alternately goes deep, quoting from the eminent French philosopher Simone Weil on community, and shallow, making all-too-obvious true/false where-you-are lists gauging such matters as "I like to tell people about where I live" and "I hope that my kids live here even after I'm gone." It's the simplifying to the point of simplistic stuff that's maddening about this book, which has plenty of promise but not much in the way of execution. For instance, it may appeal to the privileged person who feels a little bad about the homeless guy down the street to give some thought to the negatives about where you live, but "volunteering for a gardening club…or starting an afternoon ballroom dance program at the local YMCA" isn't likely to ease the hardships of the homeless. There are many other recipes geared for do-gooder gentrifiers and lots of checklists, cheerleading, and the patently obvious ("Volunteering is, by definition, the thing we don't have to do"), but as to anything truly useful—well, for that, you'll need to move on to another book. Well intended but unsatisfying.

Kirkus Reviews