Book Review: Love is a Mix Tape

I honestly hesitated to write this review.  I hesitated because I knew it meant reading the book again, and that meant another round of laughing so hard that I couldn't breathe and crying so hard that I thought I'd never stop.

I had to write this review.
Rob Sheffield is a journalist by trade; more than that, he's a rock journalist, covering the music scene for a variety of magazines since the early 90s.  Most might recognize his name from his work in Rolling Stone or perhaps from one of his many talking head appearances on various VH1 shows.

Love is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time essentially chronicles Sheffield's love affairs with both music and with a particular woman.  Renée Crist was Rob Sheffield's first wife.  Their happy days and, eventually, Sheffield's grieving process after Renée's sudden death due to a pulmonary embolism, are tracked through various mix tapes that they each made over the years.  Each chapter of the book is titled from a tape, with a listing of the songs from the tape included.

There is some time spent on Sheffield's pre-Renée years; all of the touchstones of awkward adolescence and early adulthood, from summer camp to school dances to college, are present.  But once the book gets on the story of Rob 'n' Renée, the tone settles into something close to perfection.

This is a fantastic book on so many levels.  Sheffield's writing style is, by turns, wacky and somber, touching and hilarious.  From awkward youth to marriage to loss, there are aspects of this book, of this journey, that most anyone can relate to.

This book will leave you with a realization that music is the heartbeat of the world and it might just lead you to expand your tastes as well.  I highly recommend that you spend a little time after the first reading tracking down a lot of the music; it's well worth it.

A prequel of sorts, Talking to Girls About Duran Duran: One Young Man's Quest for True Love and a Cooler Haircut has just been published, chronicling more of Sheffield's adolescence.  As soon as it's in paperback, I fully intend to get 'hold of a copy.  It should be good read and excellent listening.