Issue 3: Find 10 Things in Your Town to Brag About

Melody WarnickGreat towns, I would live there, Love Where You Live experiment, Uncategorized

I grew up in Southern California. Summertime is my jam. Especially this summer, which involved me going on an Alaskan cruise, thereby hitting #48 in my quest to visit all 50 states. (Only Connecticut and Rhode Island to go!) I also managed to fall a little bit in love with Victoria, Canada. This happens a lot, lured as I am … Read More

The Power of Public Grief

Melody WarnickUncategorized

For the first couple years we lived in Blacksburg, Virginia, I refused to participate in the Virginia Tech Run in Remembrance. It just felt too weird. Every April, the university organizes a 3.2-mile run to memorialize the 32 students and faculty members killed in 2007 by a student who’d chained the doors to Norris Hall shut and sprayed classrooms with … Read More

Can friends make you love where you live?

Melody WarnickMoving, Place love, Placemaking, Uncategorized

In 2005, my sister Heather was basically living inside her own real-life version of Friends. She and my brother-in-law were renting a two-bedroom apartment in a complex in Tustin, California, where no fewer than eight of their best friends and relatives had also taken up residence. A band of super-social newlyweds, they were hanging out all the time. Squeezing into … Read More

Stuff I’m Reading: Three Authors on Belonging

Melody WarnickReading and writing, Stuff I love, Uncategorized

My lazy summer is abruptly coming to an end, with revision deadlines and intense back-to-school shopping with my daughters. Here’s your back-to-school assignment: Go to Musing, the blog of Parnassus Books, in Nashville. Put it in your RSS feed. Wait with baited breath till a post by Ann Patchett pops up. Enjoy. I’ve never been to this bookstore physically—never even … Read More