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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
This was a beautiful journey to take with the author.
Honest, powerful, and heartbreakingly sincere - the way you'd want to see your husband write for and about you.
A compelling account of the author's relationship with his wife, defined primarily through the music they enjoyed. Despite some of the more difficult aspects of their story, the author's humor and insight carried this story for me. I am not a music maven, but I appreciated Sheffield's enthusiasm for the subject nonetheless. Sheffield finds a way to make the subject of detailing specific songs universal although it would likely be helpful to have some of those songs playing in the background during the storytelling.
Loved, loved, loved this book.
If the timeline of your life is pegged to songs and albums rather than dates and years, this book will ring so true for you.
It also doesn't hurt that the author appreciates loud Southern women.
If the timeline of your life is pegged to songs and albums rather than dates and years, this book will ring so true for you.
It also doesn't hurt that the author appreciates loud Southern women.
Rob Sheffield's book is a clever, witty, sad and poignant tale of his life with his wife Renee. He weaves the several years of his life with her and later, without her - focusing on how music, specifically mix tapes, had a role. I love how he takes us through his first DJ gig at a school dance, all the way through grad school, marriage, and the tragic death of Renee, outlined by the titles and artists of the mix tapes that narrated him through each point in his life. The story is so well told I couldn't put it down and finished it within less than a week. He left me wanting more and hoping that he'll write another book because of his brilliant way of making me feel like I was sitting right there with him in his apartment in Brooklyn at 3AM some morning, sifting through his old mix tapes and memories.
When I turned one, my grandparents oddly gifted me a cassette of the soundtrack of my favorite Bollywood movie at the time and I think I appreciate the sentiment behind that present and the medium of tapes a lot more after reading this book. Even though I'm too young to understand the intricacies of pretty much every pre-2000s rock-and-roll reference Sheffield makes (except for songs like "Hey Jude" and "Sk8r Boi" and artists like Elton John and Shania Twain), I really appreciate how the story lives up to its title. Sheffield keeps you invested in the soundtrack of his life and how his wonderful wife Renée helped shape it. Here's a great takeaway from the book for me: Human benevolence is totally unfair. We don't live in a kind or generous world, yet we are kind and generous. We know the universe is out to burn us, and it gets us all the way it got Renée, but we don't burn each other, not always.
My friend lent-subsquently gifted me this book and what a gift it is. How rare it is that we get to know someone none of us will ever meet, let alone grow a fondness for. Rob wrote a line in the final third, that Renée "wasn't a person yo tie up loose ends or settle scores." And I think this book certainly supports that.
There's nothing settling about grief. There's no ending, no resolution. But it's a kindness to us all, to have this example of some certainty that we all mean something to someone. And whether or not someone writes that in a book, we are forever connected to so many others.
I miss the 90s too
There's nothing settling about grief. There's no ending, no resolution. But it's a kindness to us all, to have this example of some certainty that we all mean something to someone. And whether or not someone writes that in a book, we are forever connected to so many others.
I miss the 90s too
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
A really fun read, since Sheffield is roughly my age & since I've always been a sucker for a mix tape.