| PRODUCT DETAILS | | Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time |  | |
Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time
What Is love? Great minds have been grappling with this question throughout the ages, and in the modern era, they have come up with many different answers. According to Western philosopher Pat Benatar, love is a battlefield. Her paisan Frank Sinatra would add the corollary that love is a tender trap. Love hurts. Love stinks. Love bites, love bleeds, love is the drug. The troubadours of our times agree: They want to know what love is, and they want you to show them. But the answer is simple: Love is a mix tape.
In the 1990s, when “alternative” was suddenly mainstream, bands like Pearl Jam and Pavement, Nirvana and R.E.M.—bands that a year before would have been too weird for MTV- were MTV. It was the decade of Kurt Cobain and Shania Twain and Taylor Dayne, a time that ended all too soon. The boundaries of American culture were exploding, and music was leading the way.
It was also when a shy music geek named Rob Sheffield met a hell-raising Appalachian punk-rock girl named Renée, who was way too cool for him but fell in love with him anyway. He was tall. She was short. He was shy. She was a social butterfly. She was the only one who laughed at his jokes when they were so bad, and they were always bad. They had nothing in common except that they both loved music. Music brought them together and kept them together. And it was music that would help Rob through a sudden, unfathomable loss.
In Love Is a Mix Tape, Rob, now a writer for Rolling Stone, uses the songs on fifteen mix tapes to tell the story of his brief time with Renée. From Elvis to Missy Elliott, the Rolling Stones to Yo La Tengo, the songs on these tapes make up the soundtrack to their lives.
Rob Sheffield isn’t a musician, he’s a writer, and Love Is a Mix Tape isn’t a love song- but it might as well be. This is Rob’s tribute to music, to the decade that shaped him, but most of all to one unforgettable woman.
From the Hardcover edition.
Manufacturer: Random House Audio
Price Range: $17.29 - $29.95
 Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time
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| User Reviews |  | Love Rob, but ...
rating: 3
Rob Sheffield is one of my all-time favorite music critics and this book confirms why -- clearly, Rob is witty, knowledgeable and thoughtful. However, I thought the book got off to a great start, then gradually devolved into a depressing love letter to his late wife. The concept -- a memoir told by way of old cassette cases -- is a fantastic one. And Rob delivers to a certain extent.
If you like Sheffield's stuff and you LOVE music, particularly '90s pop and indie, you will enjoy this book. It's a quick read.
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Tainted Love?
rating: 3
Can you love someone too much? That is the question that kept occurring to me over and over again as I read Rob Sheffield's memoir of his relationship with his former wife, Renee. A vivid, vivacious force to be reckoned with, Renee takes up much of the space in this book despite her death some 10 years previous.
Sheffield, a music writer for such titles as Rolling Stone, traces his history and relationship with Renee -- and the recovery from her death -- through a series of mix tapes. Because music truly is the language of his life, it is through the lens of the bands and songs he chooses that a complete picture of him and his marriage emerges.
The book -- and apparently his life -- is almost entirely about her. And while it is touching to see that a man can love and feel so much for a woman, I have to wonder at the health of their marriage. They married young, and Renee was only his second serious relationship -- and indeed, his feelings for her seem more in line with a high school crush than a mature love.
All the same, the book is moving, innovative, and well-written. Any music lover or child of the 90s will appreciate this trip down memory lane.
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Original idea, depressing
rating: 3
I wanted to read this book to discover some new songs and reminisce about making tapes in the 80's and 90's but the extremely gloomy story quickly killed that buzz. Yes, I realize the story about anyone's wife dying young will be sad but the author really went to great lengths to detail just how depressed he had become. So much so that the songs and mix tapes really didn't seem to matter much anymore.
A good read but the story seemed to be more about closure for the author. Someday I'll go back and lookup the song lists again but for now I'm just too dispressed.
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A soundtrack to their lives
rating: 5
Rob Sheffield's small but mighty book is about love and loss, but also weaves music in the story seamlessly. He writes for Rolling Stone now, but back when he met his future wife, he was just a self-proclaimed geek who loved music. Their relationship progressed to the tunes of Sonic Youth, REM, and everything in between.
Sheffield gives readers a full list of songs that influenced his life, so you can read while listening. This book made me laugh and cry, and gave me new tunes to add to my ipod. I highly recommend if you want a book that you can't put down from beginning to end.
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Music Tells a Story
rating: 5
What a unique and touching book. The concept of telling his story via music, which played such a key role in his life, was genius. As a music lover who grew up in the 80s and 90s myself, each time he mentioned a song that I remembered, I would start to sing it. This book reminded me how much the music you like reveals so much about you and is so ingrained in our lives. How many times have I listened to a song and it's taken me back to a certain time in my life? Countless. For Rob Sheffield, as for many of us, the memories might be happy or sad (although maybe not as sad as some are for him). This book reminded me how precious life is and how to enjoy everyday. Not to mention, it made me mad at myself for throwing away last month all of the mixed tapes I made for myself or my friends throughout my life. What a great book!
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Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time
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