“Lisa Tracy’s Objects of Our Affection is a lovely and loving book, revealing the life of her well-traveled military family not just through the furniture they chose to keep, but through what they lost and surrendered along the way. Moving from the heights of San Juan Hill to the courtyards of China’s Forbidden City, this book shows us why the possessions of our ancestors exert a profound influence upon our modern lives. Anyone who finds meaning and memory in the belongings of their forebears will enjoy this book.”
—Jeff Gammage, author of China Ghosts: My Daughter’s Journey
to America, My Passage to Fatherhood.
“Objects of Our Affection is a memoir in belongings, right down to the salt in an old glass shaker with a dented lid. Being a born Southern story-teller, Lisa Tracy has captured beautifully why we love our belongings—not for their actual value but for the family stories they hold, and for the way they allow us to follow the threads of continuity in the red velvet fabric of life.”
—Susan Caba, author of Guilty Pleasures
“A bittersweet memoir that recounts a family’s history through the furnishings they had accumulated. Readers will never again be able to visit an auction house, antique shop, or second hand store without wondering what stories the items could tell.”
—Gail Caskey Winkler, author of Victorian Interior Decoration
“An instructive and compelling narrative about the stories that long-cherished family heirlooms can tell us, if only we will listen, this is a book that will strike a responsive chord with a wide audience.”
—Charles F. Bryan, Jr., Ph.D., President Emeritus, Virginia Historical Society
“Lisa Tracy’s Objects of Our Affection is a marvelous mix of tenacity and tenderness. Yes, it is about the history of certain carefully collected heirlooms; but it is also about something much greater… the soul of a family, any family, our expectations and regrets, our loves and losses, our search for meaning and belonging in the things that fill our houses and our hearts.”
—Robert Goolrick, author of A Reliable Wife
“Plush stories of love, war, life and death are lovingly tucked inside the drawers and chair springs of a remarkable family’s furnishings. Lisa Tracy brings them to life with tender humor and due respect.”
—Tanya Maria Barrientos, author of Family Resemblance
“This is a book that gathers emotional momentum as you read it. Gradually you realize it is a rare look at the women who have devoted their lives to the men who have fought America’s wars. I read the closing chapters with tears in my eyes.”
—Thomas Fleming, author of The Officers’ Wives and West Point: The Men and Times of the U.S.Military Academy
My Word 