Turn Around Bright Eyes: The Rituals of Love and Karaoke

In this hilariously affecting follow-up to his Love Is a Mix Tape and Talking to Girls About Duran Duran, Rolling Stone writer Sheffield sings us through his journey to rebuild his life with the help of good lovin’ and a hot karaoke machine. After the untimely death of his first wife, a bereft Sheffield moves from Charlottesville, Va., to New York City, where he casts about the streets of lower Manhattan in search of meaning in life; eventually, he remembers the joys of staying out late and discovers the healing power of karaoke bars and clubs. Sheffield regales us with tales of a world unknown to most of us, but precious to the faithful: there’s J.J., the guy in Brooklyn who gets paid for singing karaoke, and the bar in the Mojave Desert where Sheffield croons Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” to group of stone-faced, die-hard Haggard fans. Through it all, Sheffield discovers that karaoke creates community that provides universal support for everyone who tries to sing the songs. He is also hopelessly “obsessed with karaoke because it lets me do the one thing I’ve craved every minute of my life.” It lets him sing. He also learns that karaoke is there to remind us that it’s never too late to let a song ruin your life by shaking you out of your emotional doldrums. Agent: Daniel Greenberg, Levine Greenberg Literary. (Aug.)