Melody Warnick

year in books

Melody Warnick’s Followers (184)

member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
member photo
Cary Jo...
2,074 books | 158 friends

Christen
1,281 books | 124 friends

Deb
Deb
1,313 books | 70 friends

Jane Du...
11,454 books | 313 friends

Leslie ...
2,282 books | 266 friends

Angie
15,067 books | 426 friends

B
B
426 books | 55 friends

Jaylin ...
1,604 books | 35 friends

More friends…

Melody Warnick

Goodreads Author


Born
Southern California
Website

Twitter

Genre

Member Since
April 2007

URL


Melody Warnick is the author of This Is Where You Belong (Viking, June 2016), a nonfiction book about what makes us fall in love with the towns and cities where we live—and why it matters. A native of California, a chronic mover, and now a resident of Virginia, she loves small towns, big cities, placemaking, parades, bookstores, and libraries.

To ask Melody Warnick questions, please sign up.

Popular Answered Questions

Melody Warnick I LEARNED IT BY WATCHING YOU, ALRIGHT?! (People who are awesome have friends who are awesome.)
Melody Warnick Hi, Richard, thanks for the question! My family left Austin ostensibly for the same reason your cousin is moving -- a job change. But there was a big …moreHi, Richard, thanks for the question! My family left Austin ostensibly for the same reason your cousin is moving -- a job change. But there was a big part of me that had become addicted to the idea of starting over elsewhere. I was constantly hunting for some magical Shangri-La that would make my life better, and Blacksburg, Virginia, at first was not that. But I stay now because it's come to feel like home. How that happened for me is what the book explains, but here's a spoiler: It takes time and effort, but I think you can feel at home almost anywhere . . . if you want to.(less)
Average rating: 3.68 · 6,602 ratings · 1,158 reviews · 6 distinct worksSimilar authors
This Is Where You Belong: T...

3.70 avg rating — 6,109 ratings — published 2016 — 15 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
If You Could Live Anywhere:...

3.42 avg rating — 488 ratings7 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Johnny Appleseed & Other Am...

by
really liked it 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2009 — 2 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
The Gingerbread Boy and Oth...

by
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2009 — 3 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Paul Bunyan and Other Ameri...

by
it was amazing 5.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2009 — 4 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
Animal Tales: Raccoon, Bear...

by
liked it 3.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2009 — 3 editions
Rate this book
Clear rating
More books by Melody Warnick…

Issue 33: 10 Ways to Feel Cozier This Christmas

A few years ago I read a book about the Danish concept of hygge, which roughly translates to coziness or charm or, I don’t know, specialness. Hard to pin down and harder to say—aim for a Viking horn–like “HYOO-guh”—the concept nevertheless stayed with me for putting a name to a kind of cozy contentment I’d experienced before and kept trying to recapture, most notably at Christmas.

Hygge is th

Read more of this blog post »
 •  0 comments  •  flag
Share on Twitter
Published on December 12, 2019 13:16

Melody’s Recent Updates

Melody Warnick rated a book liked it
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
Katabasis
by R.F. Kuang (Goodreads Author)
Rate this book
Clear rating
I'm all about magical realism, and there was lots to like about this journey into Hell, but I'm marking it down for too many scholarly inside jokes, an unlikeable main character (Alice Law needs a therapist ASAP), and a narrative that hinged on peopl ...more
Melody Warnick rated a book really liked it
The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi
Rate this book
Clear rating
Yes, it's basically Jurassic Park for Godzillas, and yes, it was the popcorn movie novel I needed right now. ...more
Melody Warnick rated a book it was amazing
Strangers by Belle Burden
Rate this book
Clear rating
A grueling, compulsively readable memoir of a woman whose husband just walks out on the family one day; she's privileged, yes, but she acknowledges that—and the pain is very real. ...more
Melody Warnick rated a book really liked it
Both Things Are True by Kate Holbrook
Rate this book
Clear rating
A book of essays about the paradoxes implicit in following Jesus Christ that made me deeply wish I'd been friends with Kate Holbrook. ...more
Melody Warnick rated a book it was amazing
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
A Guardian and a Thief
by Megha Majumdar (Goodreads Author)
Rate this book
Clear rating
Read this stunner of a novel with your book club; there are so many meaty questions to examine, including, "To what lengths would I go to protect my own family—and what do I owe everyone else?" ...more
Melody Warnick rated a book it was amazing
A Guardian and a Thief by Megha Majumdar
A Guardian and a Thief
by Megha Majumdar (Goodreads Author)
Rate this book
Clear rating
Read this stunner of a novel with your book club; there are so many meaty questions to examine, including, "To what lengths would I go to protect my own family—and what do I owe everyone else?" ...more
Melody Warnick rated a book it was amazing
Everything Is Tuberculosis by John Green
Rate this book
Clear rating
In this compulsively readable book, John Green, my new favorite science writer, explains everything you didn't know about tuberculosis, including that it still kills a million people a year—and doesn't need to. ...more
Melody Warnick rated a book it was amazing
Crucial Conversations by Kerry Patterson
Rate this book
Clear rating
The most helpful book I've read as a new manager and overall conflict-avoidant person. ...more
Melody Warnick rated a book liked it
Postmortem by Patricia Daniels Cornwell
Rate this book
Clear rating
I struggled with how dated and cliched some of this felt—but it's possible this novel was what made everything that came after feel cliched. ...more
Melody Warnick rated a book really liked it
A Thousand Feasts by Nigel Slater
Rate this book
Clear rating
Evocative, highly aesthetic little prose-poems about all my favorite things, including travel, cooking, eating, gardening, art, and British stuff.
More of Melody's books…
Quotes by Melody Warnick  (?)
Quotes are added by the Goodreads community and are not verified by Goodreads. (Learn more)

“What could I do to feel happier living here? …
1. Walk more.
2. Buy local.
3. Get to know my neighbors.
4. Do fun stuff.
5. Explore nature.
6. Volunteer.
7. Eat local.
8. Become more political.
9. Create something new.
10. Stay loyal through hard times.”
Melody Warnick, This Is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live
tags: home

“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.”
Melody Warnick, This Is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live

“In a hypermobile society, uniformity passes for familiarity.”
Melody Warnick, This Is Where You Belong: The Art and Science of Loving the Place You Live

Topics Mentioning This Author

topics posts views last activity  
2026 Reading Chal...: Terri B's 2024 - 70 book goal 38 43 Jan 03, 2025 09:37AM  
“Saying 'I notice you're a nerd' is like saying, 'Hey, I notice that you'd rather be intelligent than be stupid, that you'd rather be thoughtful than be vapid, that you believe that there are things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan. Why is that?' In fact, it seems to me that most contemporary insults are pretty lame. Even 'lame' is kind of lame. Saying 'You're lame' is like saying 'You walk with a limp.' Yeah, whatever, so does 50 Cent, and he's done all right for himself.”
John Green

“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

“Constructionism is the recognition, backed up by the last half century of brain research, that people don’t passively take in reality. Each person actively constructs their own perception of reality. That’s not to say there is not an objective reality out there. It’s to say that we have only subjective access to it. “The mind is its own place,” the poet John Milton wrote, “and in itself / Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven.”
David Brooks, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

31471 THE Group for Authors! — 13002 members — last activity Mar 22, 2026 04:48PM
This is a group for authors to discuss their craft, as well as publishing and book marketing.
415741 BOOK CITY ★ ROANOKE — 48 members — last activity Jul 19, 2020 11:03PM
Roanoke, Virginia's literary hub pulls together people committed to reading, writing, and building community around books and literacy. ...more
No comments have been added yet.