Music critic Sheffield's touching and poignant memoir of love and death will strike a chord in anyone who has used a hand-selected set of songs to try to express something that can't be put into words. A socially awkward adolescent, Sheffield finds true love as a college student in the late '80s with Renée, a "hell-raising Appalachian punk-rock girl." They're brought together by their love of music, get married and spend eight years together before Renée suddenly dies of a pulmonary embolism. Sheffield's delivery is not that of the typical actor/ reader. We come to know Rob as this geeky, lanky guy, and his reading is characteristically a little bit uncoordinated, yet it is tender and heartfelt enough to win us over. Each chapter opens with a song list from a mix tape made at the time. Listeners may wish that, as with Nick Hornby's essay collection Songbook, there had been an audio component that would allow the music to take us back or would introduce us to new songs that helped Sheffield press on into an uncertain but hopeful future. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

How'd you hear about this book, namepeace?

Sounds interesting. If my life avails time to read something beyond texts, Scripture and texts on Scripture anytime soon, I may keep this in mind.

He's even got an inside Parade reference that's absolutely perfect.

namepeace said:

What'd he say?

I left her stranded and went hme to pace up and down the parking lot outside the subdivision, shivering in the cold with my Walkman, listening to Prince's "Little Red Corvette." The ache in his voice summed up my mood, as he sang about a girl driving right past him, the kind of car that doesn't pass you every day.

Here's the quote. He was talking about this girl he had a crush on in college. He leaves her stranded in a party because he's a little intimidated by her. Here's what he said.

namepeace said:

Sure it was an inside reference and not him getting the song wrong?