A Reading Roundup

During the last few weeks of August, when the movies are inevitably of poor quality (No Escape and American Ultra I am looking in your direction) and TV hasn't yet come into the full glory of its autumnal bloom (I feel like I have been waiting forever for new episodes of You're the Worst) the life of a pop culture blogger gets a little dull. Given that, I spent that last several weeks reading books and listening to new albums. Tomorrow, I'll be doing an album rundown, but for today it's books. The following represents the stuff that I have read (for pleasure, work books, as always, don't count) during the month of August:

Movie Preview: A Look Ahead to this Weekend's Mr. Holmes

A film debuts in American theaters this week called Mr. Holmes, based on the novel A Slight Trick of the Mind by Mitch Cullin. Two things here:

Book Rundown: What I've Been Reading the Last 7 Days

This post is exactly what it sounds like, some short reviews of what I read (for pleasure, not for work) last week!

My Week in Brief: This Week in Pop Culture as Experienced by Dave

There has been a lot of news this week, obviously. The Court came down 5-4 in favor of marriage equality, upheld ACA subsidies, and let Alito write an opinion on the death penalty (a decision roughly akin to letting a Golden Retriever drive a car, he was so excited by the wind in his face he forgot that he was supposed to be performing a complex task and people will inevitably be hurt). I was also on the road, visiting my grandfather in Wichita, Kansas. Consequently, I didn't end up writing anything for this site. Today, to make up the difference, I'll do a week in brief, a rundown of notable things that I watched, read, or listened to in the last week!

TV Review: Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell

Let’s not pull any punches, right from the start, and I will say that Susanna Clarke’s Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (2004) is my favorite book of the young century. More than that, it is, to my judgment, one of the best books of the century (competing with Roberto Bolano’s 2666 as the great 21^st century novel). Anyone who knows me knows that these are two distinct judgments. I re-read the book every couple of years (I’d do it more often if it weren’t 900 pages long) in order to be sure that my estimation is not the product of youthful nostalgia, and for eleven years I have been waiting for two things: a sequel and an adaptation. One of those waits is now over.

RIP Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Gabriel Garcia Marquez died yesterday in Mexico City. He was 87 years old.