Warnick - This is where you belong: the art and science of loving the place you live

Praise for This Is Where You Belong

A BOOKS FOR A BETTER LIFE AWARD FINALIST

[Warnicks] journey to feeling attached to where she lives is scientific and packed with research, but also feels like an old friends 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

Warnick knows how to make her interview subjects sparkle and brings together the various elements of the book with finesse.... The biggest pleasure of the book, though, is the way Warnicks search will help readers reflect on their own locales. As someone who was already deeply attached to my place (according to the quiz), one might think I found little to take away. On the contrary, I gained fresh insight about why my hometown favoritesfrom food to friends to public placesmake me more measurably connected to my city. I also found a handful of bright ideas to get to know it better. As far as experiments go, thats a satisfying result.

BookPage

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 important 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 Whos Your City? and Rise of the Creative Class

With boundless curiosity and spirited, seamless prose, Melody Warnicks 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 anywhereand Melody Warnick will show you howbut 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 of 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 farmers markets, its 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 Browns 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

Warnicks book helps clarify what Id missed by living out of a suitcase.

Kira M. Newman, Greater Good Magazine

Warnicks book adds to a growing conversation among urbanists around ideas like place-making, livability, and quality of life.... Today, there are many voicespublic health experts, new urbanists, criminal justice reformers, and otherscontending for political and cultural legitimacy within our metropolitan centers. Warnicks book adds to these discourses by capturing an important truth often ignored or assumed by many of these voices: any attempt at meaningful change in a community needs citizens who care for that community.... Though Warnicks account focuses primarily on the individual, its well worth the read for any city leader or urbanist who wants to cultivate place-attached citizens rather than transient consumers.

Thriving Cities

An informative and entertaining read.

Publishers Weekly

Journalist Melody Warnick (whos moved six times in her adult life) has written a terrific book that could help you find yoursor help you make your current community a better place to live.

NextAvenue

Every military spouse needs to read this. Today.

Amy Bushatz, SpouseBuzz

A lovely journey and exploration into the art and science of what makes us feel at home. Warnicks blend of warm-heartedness, as well as psychological and social research work to create an engaging and thought provoking read.

Well-Being Magazine

Melody Warnicks This Is Where You Belong helped me cope with my move to a new town.

Bustle

PENGUIN BOOKS

THIS IS WHERE YOU BELONG

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

www.melodywarnick.com

PENGUIN BOOKS

An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

375 Hudson Street

New York, New York 10014

penguin.com

First published in the United States of America by Viking Penguin, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2016

Published in Penguin Books 2017

Copyright 2016 by Melody Warnick

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

Ebook ISBN 9780698196148

Illustrations by Marco Cibola

Cover design: Nayon Cho

Cover photograph: Joseph Shields / Getty Images

Version_3

For Quinn.

Youre my favorite.

A place belongs forever to whoever claims it hardest, remembers it most obsessively, wrenches it from itself, shapes it, renders it, loves it so radically that he remakes it in his own image.

Joan Didion

CHAPTER ONE

The Lost Art of Staying Put