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Sign up todayThis Is Where You Belong
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We’re taking steps to make sure AI narration is transparent.
Learn moreIn the spirit of Gretchen Rubin’s 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 her sixth move, 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 likable 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.
Melody Warnick, who has been a freelance journalist for more than a decade, is a regular contributor to the Everyday Heroes column in Reader’s Digest, where she profiles people around the country who do heroic things in their communities. She has also written for a number of other major magazines, including Redbook, Woman’s Day, Ladies’ Home Journal, Better Homes and Gardens, and O, the Oprah Magazine.
Carrington MacDuffie is a voice actor and recording artist who has narrated over two hundred audiobooks, received numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards, and has been a frequent finalist for the Audie Award, including for her original audiobook, Many Things Invisible. Alongside her narration work, she has released a new album of original songs, Only an Angel.
Reviews
“Narrator Carrington MacDuffie elevates this production to a fun and motivating listen….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. You’ll finish listening and then start thinking about what you can do for your community.”
“With this book by your side, a happier life is just around the corner.”
“Warnick’s placemaking manifesto will make you want to be a better neighbor, wanderer, and citizen of the world.”
“A charming, thoughtful book…a reminder that the best place to live can be where you already are.”
“A series of research-backed ways to be happy in a new home.”
“Warnick’s sociological research and anecdotal experiments provide an informative and entertaining read, along with an abundance of practical tools.”
"[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.”
“An enjoyable book for anyone who cherishes their hometown as well as for those who don’t and would like to do so.”
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