Scegli una cassetta, infilala nel registratore, schiaccia play. Un mix tape ha il potere magico di teletrasportarti a un momento preciso della tua vita: la festa delle medie in cui speravi che, con la canzone giusta, avresti rimediato il primo bacio; quell'indimenticabile viaggio in macchina con una vecchia amica; la ragazza che miravi a conquistare con una compilation su misura - e infatti, ecco che è diventata tua moglie. Rob conosce Renée una sera d'autunno del 1989, quando in un bar sono gli unici a drizzare le antenne sulle prime note di Radio City dei Big Star. Non c'è scampo, nasce l'amore. Sette anni dopo, l'11 maggio 1997, Renée d'improvviso non c'è più, muore tra le braccia di Rob per un'embolia polmonare. Nel mezzo - e prima, e dopo - c'è tantissima vita, ogni ricordo accompagnato da una compilation su cassetta che, in questo memoir commovente e nostalgico, Sheffield ci invita ad ascoltare insieme a lui. Prince, Lou Reed, Madonna, e poi ancora i Pavement, i Nirvana, gli R.E.M.: queste pagine mostrano quanto profondamente la musica metta in relazione le persone, creando un legame più forte anche della morte. Con l'arguzia tragica di Dave Eggers e l'onestà romantica di Nick Hornby, Rob Sheffield - critico di lungo corso per Rolling Stone - ci accompagna in un viaggio gioioso e lancinante al tempo stesso. E forse la canzone che ci girerà in testa leggendo queste pagine sarà proprio quella che ci ricorda l'amore della nostra vita.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Love Is a Mix Tape,a thoughtful and loving meditation on the life of the late David Bowie that explores his creative legacy and the enduring and mutual connection he enjoyed with his fans

Innovative. Pioneering. Brave. Until his death in January 2016, David Bowie created art that not only pushed boundaries, but helped fans understand themselves and view the world from fantastic new perspectives.

When the shocking news of his death on January 10, 2016 broke, the outpouring of grief and adulation was immediate and ongoing. Fans around the world and across generations paid homage to this brilliant, innovate, ever evolving artist who both shaped and embodied our times.

In this concise and penetrating book, featuring color photographs, highly regardedRolling Stone critic, bestselling author, and lifelong Bowie fan Rob Sheffield shares his own feelings about the passing of this icon and explains why Bowie’s death has elicited such an unprecedented emotional outpouring from so many lives.

Once upon a time I was falling apart. Now I'm always falling in love.

When Rob Sheffield moved to New York City in 2001, he was a young widower trying to start a new life in a new town. One night, some friends dragged him to a karaoke bar—and that night turned into many nights in many karaoke bars. Karaoke became a way to be someone else if only for the span of a three-minute song, and through the sublime ridiculousness of karaoke, Rob began to find his voice.

And then the unexpected happened. A voice on the radio got Rob's attention. And the voice came attached to a woman who could name every constellation in the sky, every Depeche Mode B side, and could belt out a mean Bonnie Tyler. Turn Around Bright Eyes is a journey of hilarity and heartbreak with a karaoke soundtrack. It's about finding the courage to move on, clearing your throat, and letting it rip—and how songs get tangled up in our deepest emotions.

Once upon a time I was falling apart. Now I'm always falling in love.

Pick up the microphone.

When Rob Sheffield moved to New York City in the summer of 2001, he was a young widower trying to start a new life in a new town. Behind, in the past, was his life as a happily married rock critic, with a wife he adored, and a massive collection of mix tapes that captured their life together. And then, in a flash, all he had left were the tapes.

Beyoncé , Bowie, Bon Jovi, Benatar . . .

One night, some friends dragged him to a karaoke bar in the West Village. A night out was a rare occasion for Rob back then.

Turn around

Somehow, that night in a karaoke bar turned into many nights, in many karaoke bars. Karaoke became a way out, a way to escape the past, a way to be someone else if only for the span of a three-minute song. Discovering the sublime ridiculousness of karaoke, despite the fact that he couldn't carry a tune, he began to find his voice.

Turn around

And then the unexpected happened. A voice on the radio got Rob's attention. The voice came attached to a woman who was unlike anyone he'd ever met before. A woman who could name every constellation in the sky, and every Depeche Mode B side. A woman who could belt out a mean Bonnie Tyler.

Bright Eyes

Turn Around Bright Eyes is an emotional journey of hilarity and heartbreak with a karaoke soundtrack. It's a story about finding the courage to move on, clearing your throat, and letting it rip. It's a story about navi- gating your way through adult romance. And it's a story about how songs get tangled up in our deepest emotions, evoking memories of the past while inspiring hope for the future.

Drawing on Diana Baumrind's work on authoritative parenting, Larzelere et al. (human development and family science, Oklahoma State U.) compile 10 chapters by specialists working in child and family studies, human development, and psychology in the US, who summarize key current parenting research relevant to authoritative parenting. They describe the history and current state of research,including clarification by Baumrind of her original definition; the components of authoritative parenting, the centrality of control, responding to perceived misbehavior, bidirectional effects between parents and children, and how parenting can be understood within a set of interconnected dynamic systems; mechanisms that account for the effectiveness of authoritative parenting and the aspects of responsiveness and demandingness that are helpful or harmful for child outcomes; how the effects vary across cultures; principles for improving parent management training; clinical parenting interventions that focus on children's and parent's emotions; and how this parenting is related to adolescent negotiations for increasing autonomy, cognitive development, and treatments to reduce aggression. Annotation ©2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

The author of the national bestseller Love is a Mix Tape returns, with a different-but equally personal and equally universal- spin on music as memory.

'No rock critic-living or dead, American or otherwise-has ever written about pop music with the evocative, hyperpoetic perfectitude of Rob Sheffield.'

So said Chuck Klosterman about Love is a Mix Tape, Sheffield's paean to a lost love via its soundtrack. Now, in Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, Sheffield shares the soundtrack to his eighties adolescence.

When he turned 13 in 1980, Rob Sheffield had a lot to learn about women, love, music and himself, and in Talking to Girls About Duran Duran we get a glimpse into his transformation from pasty, geeky 'hermit boy' into a young man with his first girlfriend, his first apartment, and a sense of the world. These were the years of MTV and John Hughes movies; the era of big dreams and bigger shoulder pads; and, like any all-American boy, this one was searching for true love and maybe a cooler haircut. It all here: Inept flirtations. Dumb crushes. Deplorable fashion choices. Members Only jackets. Girls, every last one of whom seems to be madly in love with the bassist of Duran Duran.

Sheffield's coming-of-age story is one that we all know, with a playlist that any child of the eighties or anyone who just loves music will sing along with. These songs-and Sheffield's writing-will remind readers of that first kiss, that first car, and the moments that shaped their lives.

Music defines us. To return the favor, we'll stick up with zealous passion for the performers and bands that we love . . . and heap aspersions and ridicule upon people who dare to place their allegiances above our own. In Rock and Roll Cage Match, today's leading cultural critics, humorists, music journalists, and musicians themselves take sides in thirty of the all-time juiciest “who's better” musical disputes.

Marc Spitz on the Smiths vs. the Cure: “If the Smiths are its James Dean, the Cure are the Marlon Brando of modern rock.”

Gideon Yago on Nirvana vs. Metallica: “Here is why Nirvana will always be a better band than Metallica. It's not because they hit harder (they do). It's not because they are tighter (they're definitely not). . . . It's because Metallica is fundamentally about respecting rules—of metal, of production, of technicality—and Nirvana is about breaking those rules down in the pursuit of innovation. Metallica was metal. Nirvana was something else.”

Touré on Michael Jackson vs. Prince: “[Prince] was the wild son of Jimi, the younger brother of Rick James and Richard Pryor, the ultrasexual black Casanova who told you up front that he had a dirty mind . . . Michael held the opposite appeal. His music was often about escaping through dance or being hopeful about the world, and he came across as super-innocent.”

Russ Meneve on Bruce Springsteen vs. Bon Jovi: “I really, truly mean it when I say, Mr. Springsteen, no disrespect . . . you are a legend. But in the Battle a da Jerz, when that thick chemical-waste smoke clears and the overly sprayed mall hair parts, the Jov man is the last man rockin'.”

Whitney Pastorek on Whitney Houston vs. Mariah Carey: “Frankly, dry recitations of figures are just too easily negated by simple things like, say, bringing up someone's horrible taste in choosing movie roles. Watch, I'll do it right now: Yes, Mariah has seventeen number one singles, and Whitney only eleven. But Whitney made The Bodyguard, which is basically a classic, and Mariah starred in Glitter, a colossal suckfest of crapitude that should disqualify her on the spot.”

Mix tapes: We all have our favorites. Stick one into a deck, press play, and you're instantly transported to another time in your life. For Rob Sheffield, that time was one of miraculous love and unbearable grief. A time that spanned seven years, it started when he met the girl of his dreams, and ended when he watched her die
in his arms. Using the listings of fifteen of his favorite mix tapes, Rob shows that the power of music to build a bridge between people is stronger than death. You'll read these words, perhaps surprisingly, with joy in your heart and a song in your head—the one that comes to mind when you think of the love of your life.