Love is a Mix Tape - An autobiographical memoir about a man who lost his wife after about 5 years of marriage. Quite a tribute to her that I'd be smitten by if someone did the same for me.
The book mainly deals with the time the two shared together and as you might have guessed by the title, how music connects these various times. You also spend a portion of life prior to him meeting his wife and then the process of him dealing with life after her death.
As someone who also has music being an everlasting constant presence around me, this book was very relatable in many ways, but it's not the key to enjoying the book or not. Even I wasn't aware of many of the tracks brought up, or even in some cases the artist altogether. It's not important to know them as the author is able to give you enough info to infer a point about a connection or how a song fit with a certain moment. If you do know exactly the song or the artist, bonus points for you, but it's unnecessary in getting the point across.
I enjoyed getting to know this couple and their way of life, family ties, eccentricities, hopes, fears, even the average boring day to day married couple nonsense. It's all very romantic and them being people who sort of seem like I would take to helped my enjoyment as well.
When the wife unexpectedly dies, it really took my breath out. And you know from chapter one that she isn't going to make it, but man when the moment came it still knocked me on my ass. The portion after her passing is also a testament to who she was as a person. People really loved her and she touched many of them.
I'm always scared of the idea that once I die or someone I care about dies that they merely become a footnote that will soon be forgotten. Especially as time goes by. If I or they didn't leave something substantial behind they just slowly fade and become a distant memory that soon has no impact while the people that they knew, friends, family, husband / wife, keep on going on and get to experience so much more while the dead are left behind. With this woman in the book though, you can see that if you were worth a damn to people on a human level the memory and impact still can live on. That's kind of comforting. I mean I don't know if I would have that impact haha, but hey there's hope.
The book was a really nice read. Always love when music has a big tie to a story as music is really a personal thing that is sort of an extension of us. Sometimes we like music just for the sake of it. Happens to me all the time. Other times though it's because we feel a deeper connection to it. It speaks to us on a personal level. Sometimes due to the lyrics. Other times the feel of the music. Or both. Music is versatile like that. I love that.
If you got a mushy heart and music is a constant presence around you, I recommend the book.