Love Is a Mix Tape: Life and Loss, One Song at a Time

This was a great book. I really like how he associated music and his life. It's really heartbreaking at the end, but you can tellt his was a really awesome guy, and I loved reading this.

Normally I would avoid these overt gestures for culture relevance (read: disposable literature) like the plague, but I'm a sucker and bought the book because of the title. I do, in fact, agree that for me, love is a mix tape. Sheffield masterfully weaves a narrative of falling in love with a girl, growing together, and parting in death all through the vehicle of shared musical experience. And yes, this is a memoir about a thirty-one year-old man losing his wife--and it hits just as hard as you'd expect. Reminds me of "Perks Of Being A Wallflower," so I'd recommend it to all of us recovering awkward emo boys...

An extremely heartbreaking (true story) about the writer's music-loving, soul shaking wife who not only changed his entire world but brought so much into everyone else's. One of the only books I ever read in one sitting. It hit close to home and haunted me for weeks after... maybe even a little still.

a great read, sometimes a bit overly sentimental, but he did suffer a big loss that could ruin a lesser person, recommended

I grabbed this book while thrifting without reading the back cover and took it with me on a recent road trip. It was a quick but powerful read and I really loved it.

I expected more since I loved mix tapes. I just didn't care about the main character at all.

A heart-warming and emotional memoir of lost, but never forgotten love and the music and mix tapes that keeps the passed alive.

Each chapter starts with a mix tape play list of the songs that meant something from that particular period of Rob Sheffield (Rolling Stone) life at the time. This is a fantastic book that will remind you of music once/still loved and bring you close up to a couples time together surrounded by their second love music.

Really enjoyed this book! I'm of generation Mix-tape and appreciated the use of this meaningful medium to tell an emotional story.

"Love Is A Mix Tape: Life And Loss, One Song At A Time" is a funny, charming and heartbreaking memoir by Rolling Stone editor and occasional VH-1 talking head Rob Sheffield. Sheffield tells the tale of his two loves - one love is Renee, a country gal into punk and indie rock; the other is music. Both love stories are tightly intertwined. Music is what brought them together (they bonded over the band Big Star) and kept them together (their first dance at their wedding was to a Big Star song). And ultimately, music is what helped Rob heal after Renee died suddenly and unexpectedly of a pulmonary embolism at the age of 31.

Each chapter of the book begins with a tracklist to an actual mix tape (made by either Rob or Renee) that served as the soundtrack to that particular chapter in Rob's life. As someone who associates certain songs with certain points in my life, this was something that I strongly connected with. Not since Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity" have I identified with a book so strongly. "Love Is A Mix Tape" is a quick, engaging read that I didn't want to put down (admittedly I had to put it down a few times when the sad parts got a little too sad).

I hope this little book gets some play. Sheffield is talented and his story is terrific. Really affecting and well-told. Worth a read.