Morning Bites: Etgar Keret holiday card, Pushkin’s restaurant, Kate Christensen blogs about food, DeWitt’s response, and more

A restaurant named after one of Pushkin’s characters opens up in the West Village. Maybe Kate Christensen can check it out and write it up for her new food blog? Etgar Keret writes a Christmas card for Electric Literature. Jennifer Egan and books on mini farming: A.N. Devers year in reading at The Millions. Willa Paskin at Vulture points us to Helen DeWitt’s blog for her response to Michael H. Miller’s Observer profile on the Lightning Rods author. Julie Klausner talks to Popcandy. […]

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Morning Bites: Canceled to Death, The Hobbit, Helen DeWitt, gospel records, Paul Murray, and more

Bored to Death was canceled (bummer), and Jonathan Ames wants you to come down and have one last toast for the show. The trailer for The Hobbit is out. At the Observer: Michael H. Miller profiles Helen DeWitt. Paul Murray talks about his Paris Review short story. Mike McGonigal is interviewed by Aquarium Drunkard about collecting gospel records. (We interviewed him last February.  Check it out.) Follow Vol. 1 Brooklyn on Twitter, Facebook, and our Tumblr. Got tips for Bites?  Info@Vol1brooklyn.com

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Afternoon Bites: Helen DeWitt, “The Chairs Are Where The People Go,” Ben Marcus, and more

Ben Marcus’s “Advice from Pooh Corner” can now be read on his site. Big Other features another batch of smart folks, including Penina Roth and Dawn Raffel, talking about their favorite things from 2011. If you’re curious about Misha Glouberman and Sheila Heti’s The Chairs Are Where The People Go, the LA Review of Books has a review of and a podcast about the book in question. The Outlet reports from the Portland, Oregon release party for Martha Grover’s One […]

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Morning Bites: “not beat poets,” last Sonic Youth show, Victorian hoarders, animating Bolaño, and more

Today you should do birthday shots for Voltaire, Goldie Hawn, Björk, and Ken Griffey Jr. Robert Hass, the 70-year-old former Poet Laureate of the United States, writes an op-ed about being beaten by police at Occupy Berkeley. At Granta: Animating Bolaño. The Los Angeles Review of Books talks to Helen DeWitt. The Victorians: Original hoarders?  3:AM Magazine talks to Alina Simone. Ted Leo and Titus Andronicus are playing an OWS benefit in Brooklyn tonight. Possibly the last Sonic Youth show ever? […]

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Some Notes On Helen DeWitt’s “Lightning Rods”

Posted by Tobias Carroll It’s been a few weeks since I finished Helen DeWitt’s second novel, Lightning Rods. Jen Vafdis contributed a fine review of the novel earlier this week; I wanted to throw in my two cents here, as this is a novel that seems designed to spark debate, inspire discussion, and leave the reader just more than slightly unmoored.

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