The perfect gift for music lovers, The Mixtape of My Life is a guided journal that offers prompts and questions to get everyone recalling the pivotal songs that have shaped our lives. No matter which musical generation you belong to, or whether your musical tastes range from doo-wop to Daft Punk, The Mixtape of My Life can be an instant conversation starter among friends and family--and a great way to rediscover the special tunes that played during key moments of your life. Everyone has those songs that take them back--to their first love, their favorite concert, or a memorable Saturday morning cartoon. The Mixtape of My Life provides more than 200 questions and prompts to help readers chronicle their lives through music and explore their personal soundtrack. Evoking memories, stories, and long-forgotten mix tapes, this guided journal includes questions like "What was the first record you owned?" and "What song did you later realize was smutty?" and provides room to draw a favorite album cover or create the perfect road trip playlist. With dozens of quirky illustrations throughout, The Mixtape of My Life can be a great tool for your next dinner party, or simply something any music lover can enjoy for themselves.

When a relationship-adverse guitarist is handed guardianship of his niece, he finds solace and help from an unexpected source. Known as the comic relief and steadfast bachelor of the chart-topping band, Water Reflection, Lonnie Brennan is only in Tennessee to make sure their lead singer doesn't get his heart stomped on. He has no intention of falling in love with the Southern charm of the town...or the sexy redhead whose problems are far too reminiscent of the childhood he escaped. Wynn Nichols was always the stable friend guiding others. So how did she end up divorced, slinking home with disappointment and failure following her? The last thing she's looking for is a new relationship, and certainly not one with a sexy musician who treats life like a series of jokes. When Lonnie suddenly finds his tiny niece placed in his care and has no idea what to do with her, Wynn swoops in to help. They form an unlikely friendship that gets them through the darkest days of their lives. Can they risk the relationship they need for the attraction that brews between them and a chance at a very unlikely happily ever after? "I always saw relationships as a burden instead of a gift...until Wynn showed me the way." Inspired by Chris Janson's "Drunk Girl," this heart-searing, single-dad, slow-burn standalone is the fourth book in an interconnected, standalone series.

This memoir is “an emotional journey that will make you laugh, cry, and everything in between” (Wanda Sykes) as it explores comedian, writer, and producer Cristela Alonzo’s childhood as a first-generation Mexican American in Texas and her dreams to pursue a career in comedy. When Cristela Alonzo and her family lived as squatters in an abandoned diner, they only had two luxuries: a television and a radio. These became her pop cultural touchstones and a guiding light that ushered her forward. In Music to My Years, Cristela shares her experiences and struggles of being a first-generation American, her dreams of becoming a comedian, and how it feels to be a creator in a world that often minimizes people of color and women. Her stories range from the ridiculous—like the time she made her own tap shoes out of bottle caps or how the theme song of The Golden Girls landed her in the principal’s office—to the sobering moments, like how she turned to stand-up comedy to grieve the heartbreaking loss of her mother and how, years later, she’s committed to giving back to the community. Each significant moment of the book relates to a song, and the resulting playlist is deeply moving, resonant, and unforgettable. Music to My Years is “a timely reminder that regardless of economic status, race, or gender, love is the connection that ties together all humanity” (Booklist).

An emotional, small-town, first-love romance between a spirited athlete and her football hero neighbor. Feisty, dive queen Cam Swayne refuses to give up on her destiny. For as long as she can remember, her heart has belonged to the dreamy boy next door. But despite their lifelong friendship, the three years separating them seems like an insurmountable hurdle to the relationship she really wants. Until one summer night, when everything changes and Jake finally sees her for the woman she's become. Can Cam's sheer determination keep them together when college, illness, and fate come calling? Or will she be left to pick up the pieces without him? "You were my only wish. My only dream come true. But what if I couldn't keep you?" Inspired by Taylor Swift's "Begin Again," this heartbreaking story of love, resilience, and unexpected happily ever afters might just leave a permanent mark on your soul. Warning: tears may fall... Start the complete, interconnected series today.

The highly anticipated memoir from Gucci Mane, "one of hip-hop's most prolific and admired artists" (The New York Times).

Mixtape Nostalgia: Culture, Memory, and Representation tells the story of the mixtape from its history in 1970s bootlegging to its resurgence as an icon of nostalgic analog technology. Burns looks at the history of the mixtape from the early 1980s and the rise of the cassette as a fundamental aspect of the music industry. Stories from music fans collecting hip hop mixtapes in the Bronx or recording songs off the radio permeate the book. She discusses the continued contemporary appeal of the mixtape as musicians, novelists, memoirists, playwrights, and even podcasters have used it as a metaphor for connection and identity. From Rob Sheffield’s Love is a Mix Tape to Questlove’s Mixtape Potluck Cookbook, Burns analyzes how the mixtape can function as a plot point, a stand-in for emotional connection, or an organizing structure. The book shows how creators use the iconography of the mixtape cassette to create ephemera, from coffee subscriptions to board games, which speaks to the appreciation of the tangible and the analog. The desire to find connection through sharing a physical artifact permeates the various creative uses of the mixtape. From blockbuster films like Guardians of the Galaxy to mixtape throw pillows, Burns highlights the mixtape as a site of collective memory tied to youth culture, community identity, and sharing music.

“The happiest, saddest, sweetest book about rock ‘n’ roll that I’ve ever experienced.”—Chuck Klosterman 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. Praise for Love is a Mixtape “A memoir that manages, no small feat, to be funny and beautifully forlorn at the same time.”—The New York Times Book Review “Humorous, heartbreaking, and heroic.”—Entertainment Weekly “The finest lines ever written about rock ‘n’ roll . . . Like that song on the radio, every word of Rob’s book is true. Love is a mix tape.”—Rolling Stone “Many of us use pop culture as a mirror of our emotional lives, but Sheffield happily walks right through the looking glass.”—Los Angeles Times “Sheffield writes with such aching remembering, you feel like you are invading his privacy . . . and it’s the truth of those details that make this memoir so touching.”—Newsweek

An art form combining the skills of a DJ with the intimacy of a letter, a good mixtape was the ultimate audio valentine. Today, when the iPod and playlists reign supreme, the cassette has been rendered obsolete, and the art of crafting these sonic calling cards has been relegated to back-of-the-closet, thirty-something nostalgia. Now, thanks to Jason Bitner, we can relive our lost youth and lost loves. In Cassette from My Ex, sixty noted writers and musicians wax poetic about their own experiences with these charming artifacts and the relationships that inspired them. Contributors include: Maxim editor Joe Levy Author Rick Moody Former Rolling Stone writer and MTV2 veejay Jancee Dunn The Magnetic Fields' Claudia Gonson Stories range from the irreverently sweet, such as the doomed love affair between a Deadhead and a Goth, to the touching, such as the heartbreaking discovery of a former love passing away. Everyone will find a story or a song to relate to. Just hit play.

An accessible, contemporary introduction to the methods for determining cause and effect in the Social Sciences “Causation versus correlation has been the basis of arguments—economic and otherwise—since the beginning of time. Causal Inference: The Mixtape uses legit real-world examples that I found genuinely thought-provoking. It’s rare that a book prompts readers to expand their outlook; this one did for me.”—Marvin Young (Young MC) Causal inference encompasses the tools that allow social scientists to determine what causes what. In a messy world, causal inference is what helps establish the causes and effects of the actions being studied—for example, the impact (or lack thereof) of increases in the minimum wage on employment, the effects of early childhood education on incarceration later in life, or the influence on economic growth of introducing malaria nets in developing regions. Scott Cunningham introduces students and practitioners to the methods necessary to arrive at meaningful answers to the questions of causation, using a range of modeling techniques and coding instructions for both the R and the Stata programming languages.