Jason Diamond

T. Geronimo Johnson is “Wrestling With the American Idiom”

March 19, 2015 No Comments

There’s a very good chance that you’ll see a Facebook link or tweet that proclaims some bit of real life news is “not an Onion article” at some point during your day. That’s been the rallying cry over the last few years in a world where the lines are sometimes blurred between real news and satire. In Welcome to Braggsville, T. Geronimo Johnson‘s new novel that buzzes with energy from the first page to the last, we get a book perfectly […]

Books

The Recorded Barry Hannah

March 5, 2015 No Comments

While we’re still holding out for a national Indie Bookstore Day, this upcoming Record Store Day does hold one particular treasure we seek: Barry Hannah: I have no idea what tradition I’m in. Don’t care, a 1989 spoken record recording of Hannah on vinyl. Here’s the catch: we probably have to go to Mississippi if we want one of the 500 copies that are being pressed. But in case they don’t all sell, The End of All Music will sell […]

Books, Featured, music

The (He)art of the Memoir: GIRL IN A BAND by Kim Gordon

February 23, 2015 No Comments

Rock and roll memoirs can be tricky. Maybe you want to know about the grit and the decadence, but beyond that, the genre might not offer up much else. There’s always the temptation of secrets from venue green rooms and recording studios, little tidbits that reveal a bit about the band and their beloved music. On the rare occasion these books can be a great read, but most are a slog through formulaic confessionals. Marianne Faithful, Kristin Hersh, and even Marilyn […]

Books

When Paul Thomas Anderson Talked to David Foster Wallace About Don DeLillo

January 6, 2015 No Comments

You can learn a lot about Paul Thomas Anderson on this week’s WTF Podcast, but maybe the most interesting bit of trivia you could pick up is that P.T.A. took a class taught by David Foster Wallace. Listen to the whole thing, but Anderson calls Wallace the first teacher he fell in love with around the 38 minute mark. Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Twitter, Facebook, Google +, our Tumblr, and sign up for our mailing list.

Books

Blurbs I Care About: “The Dig” by Cynan Jones

January 5, 2015 1 Comment

Say what you want about what you might read on the back of a book jacket, but The Dig by Cynan Jones popped up to the top of my TBR pile because the folks at Coffee House describe it as, “Cormac McCarthy meets Marilynne Robinson in this slo-mo collision between a badger baiter and grieving farmer in rural Wales.” You can’t beat a comparison like that, but that’s also a hell of a lot to live up to. Follow […]

Books, Year of Favorites

A Year of Favorites: Jason Diamond

December 8, 2014 No Comments

I felt the need to go back and revisit some of the books on this list I’ve been compiling since January 1st to see how these titles stood up since I spent the first six months of 2014 reading for work, and the second-half mostly for pleasure. What I came away with was the realization that I couldn’t think of another year where new literature brought me so much joy as much as 2014 did. Sure, I was reading a lot […]

Books, Film

Live That Philip Marlowe Life in the Hollywood Hills

December 1, 2014 No Comments

Ever want to live like Elliott Gould as Philip Marlowe in Robert Altman’s 1973 adaptation of Raymond Chandler’s The Long Goodbye? Here’s your chance: At the end of a cul de sac near the Hollywood Bowl, park your car in a garage carved into the hill. Walk through a gated tunnel to a private elevator where you’ll be taken up 6 stories through the hill to the top of a Tuscan tower. Nestled in a quiet walk street enclave high above the […]

Books, Featured, Interviews

“My arms feel buoyant and empty”: Lindsay Hunter on Poetry and Noir’s Influence on “Ugly Girls”

November 17, 2014 No Comments

There’s something really dirty about Lindsay Hunter‘s debut novel, Ugly Girls. It’s more the traditional dirt, however, the type that’s of the earth, and that leaves all kinds of stuff under your fingernails. The setting and the characters–a bunch of people who don’t seem to be going anywhere, who live in some Nowhereville, USA type of place–combined with Hunter’s perfect prose leading into a curse word or a misspelled chat or text here or there, help give Hunter’s first novel […]

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