Review: Turn around Bright Eyes by Rob Sheffield

Turn Around Bright Eyes by Rob Sheffield
Expected Publication: August 6, 2013
Source: ARC via publisher
Publisher: It Books
Rating 4/5

Summary via Goodreads

An emotional journey of hilarity and heartbreak with a karaoke soundtrack, in the spirit of Rob Sheffield's bestselling Love Is a Mix Tape.

Turn around Bright Eyes picks up Sheffield's story right after Love Is a Mix Tape. He is a young widower devastated by grief, trying to build a new life in a new town after his wife's death. As a writer for Rolling Stone, he naturally takes solace in music. But that's when he discovers the sublime ridiculousness of karaoke, and despite the fact that he can't carry a tune, he begins to find his voice. His karaoke obsession takes him to some strange places, whether that means singing a Frank Sinatra song in a senior-citizen community in Florida, attempting a Merle Haggard classic at a cowboy saloon in the Mojave desert, or clearing the room at an after-hours dive in Chinatown. But he finds the music leads him to the most surprising place of all--a new life and a new love.

Turn around Bright Eyes is a story about finding the courage to start over, move on, and rock the mike. It's about falling in love and navigating your way through adult romance. It's about how you can learn the weirdest things about yourself just by butchering a Hall & Oates song at 2 A.M. under fluorescent lights in a room full of strangers. It's about how songs get tangled up in our deepest emotions, evoking memories of the past while inspiring hope for the future. But most of all, it's a book about all the strange ways music brings people together.

My Thoughts

Turn around Bright Eyes is yet again another fabulous read by Rob Sheffield. I truly enjoy the way Rob writes about his love of music and how a single song can always bring you back to certain moment in one’s life. In this novel he explores his love for karaoke and the songs, good or bad, that have become intertwined into his life. He speaks of friends, his family and how he found love again after his wife’s death.

I’ve been a huge fan of Rob Sheffield’s ever since I read his articles in Rolling Stone magazine and especially after his first novel, Love is a Mix Tape. This man’s knowledge of music amazes me. Every song isn’t just a song to him. It’s a memory, a story or most importantly a slice of life.

While my heart will always have a special place for Love is a Mix Tape, Turn around Bright Eyes doesn’t disappoint by far. His novels make me so aware of why I love music.  Music to me isn’t just noise in the background; it’s so much more than that. It’s the thing I live for, besides books. It’s the thing that picks me up when I’m having a bad day and it’s also the one thing that can make a good day even better. Music to me is simply embedded in my soul. It’s a part of me, just like the blood that runs through my veins. It’s the one thing I begin and end my day with each and every single day.

So this is why I love this book. I simply GET IT. I get how someone can take something as simple as a single song or music and see how everything in this world can somehow always come back to it. I highly encourage any music lover to put up Rob Sheffield’s books, you won’t be disappointed. You will discover some great tracks and stories that you can relate to and some that will indeed touch your soul.