513. This Is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live
Rating: ☆☆1/2
Recommended by:
Author: Melody Warnick
Genre: Non Fiction, Self Improvement
308 pages, published June 21, 2016
Reading Format: Audiobook on Hoopla
Summary
In This Is Where You Belong, author Melody Warnick explores ways and methods to love your new hometown. She herself had already moved multiple times when her husband’s new job landed her in Blacksburg, Virginia. Rather than hope this new town would be her family’s perfect fit, she decided to figure out how to fall in love with it. From that desire and her subsequent actions sprang this book.
Quotes
“We speak of searching for happiness, of finding contentment, as if these were locations on an atlas, actual places that we could visit if only we had the proper map and the right navigational skills.”
“What could I do to feel happier living here? …
- Walk more.
- Buy local.
- Get to know my neighbors.
- Do fun stuff.
- Explore nature.
- Volunteer.
- Eat local.
- Become more political.
- Create something new.
- Stay loyal through hard times.”
“Faced with developing a brand-new social network [after having moved cross-country to a new city], her approach was: Show up to everything; talk to everyone.”
“The more uprooted I felt, the more I longed to be moored in place. In a world that’s supposedly flat, loving where we live still matters, even when we move a lot. Maybe especially when we move a lot.”
My Take
My husband Scot and I are considering a cross-country move in a few years from Boulder, Colorado to Chapel Hill, North Carolina. I picked up this book to see if there was any useful advice on how to adapt to a new place and build connections. While there were a few tips that I will try to use, most of the recommendations are common sense or not germane to us.
