11.04.09
Zingerman’s is the BOMB!
I just got done with a tour of the bakery at Zingerman’s in Ann Arbor, prior to an author dinner with Paul Doiron, debut author of The Poacher’s Son, and all I can say is Zingerman’s rocks! I’ll have a picture-tour up soon – hopefully tomorrow – so you can all join in the awesomeness we have so close in Ann Arbor. 
Bookworms musings
First attempt at this blogging thing. Don’t really consider myself a luddite, but I am far from tech savvy.
Just finished the latest book by Alex Kava called “Black Friday“. I double checked my book diary and I hadn’t read anything by her before, and I am now wondering why? It appears as though her earlier books, specifically, “Exposed”. Have the same cast of characters in it. Yea! My favourite type of writer, one who carries her characters throughout a series of trials and tribulations. Makes me feel like I know them, though I won’t get all “Annie Wilkes/Misery” on anybody I promise.
Kava’s FBI profiler, Maggie O’Dell, the smitten Nick Morelli, and Maggie’s newly found stepbrother, Patrick are all on hand for this book which takes place on the most dreaded Friday of the year for those people who loathe shopping. The Friday after Thanksgiving, at the largest Mall in the United States, is where the action take place for most of the book.
It was a very quick read for me, kinda left me wanting for more. But she leaves one character in the book, and I have a feeling that Miss O’Dell will be chasing him for books to come. Since it was my first Kava read, and I enjoyed it so much, of course I found myself at Schuler’s again this afternoon looking for previous novels. I only found one. Not a problem, now I can have Pierre print me up a copy of the older ones on the new Espresso Book Machine. Sweet concept, if they can get it running, and keep it running.
Trying to decide which book to tackle next…
Krys the Bookworm.
One last Halloween gasp
I can’t bear the thought of it already being November – how does Halloween come and go so fast? Sigh. So here’s one last nod to Halloween before I retire it for another year.
At this time of year I always need a solid dose of vampire lore, and this time I was treated to a sharp revisiting of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, in the guise of a sequel — Dracula: The Un-Dead — composed by Stoker’s great grand-nephew Dacre Stoker, working with Ian Holt, a (or is it an?) historian and Dracula documentarian.
I approached this with some trepidation, knowing that sequels can be dodgy things, but I was very pleasantly surprised. The action takes place 25 years after the “brave band of heroes” triumphed over Dracula. Jonathan and Mina Harker have always lived with the mark of Dracula hanging over their heads, most powerfully through the fear that one day their son Quincey may be the target of revenge. When it becomes obvious that members of the band are being hunted, all of their history is unearthed, leaving them fighting for their lives and wondering if they did indeed kill Dracula after all.
While it’s definitely not life-changing, this novel is pure fun, with everything you’d hope for: interesting twists on the vampire legends, a rapid page-turning pace, and even romance that doesn’t descend into mere vamp-porn. Great fun for cold autumn nights!
–Whitney
10.29.09
The State News LOVES Zombies!
Today’s State News (Michigan State Univ.’s award-winning student newspaper) gave us some amazing coverage of last Tuesday night’s Zombie Night at Schuler of Lansing! They even supplemented it online with a photo gallery (that includes images of a number of costume contest winners) and a video clip. We knew the party was a hit from how many requests we’ve already had for Zombie Night 2010, but this is sweet icing on the cake.
Lansing resident Monica Wright, left, waits for her costume to be judged as Dansville, Mich., resident Kerry Cripe pretends to bite his daughter Anna McCabe, 10, during zombie night Tuesday at Schuler Books & Music, 2820 Towne Center Blvd., in Lansing. Cripe and McCabe won first place in the costume contest, which included all kinds of zombies including bobble head zombies, a zombie princess and an elephant zombie. — Photo by Angeli Wright
Zombie pinups invade Schuler
To kill a zombie, you’ll need a shotgun or a blunt object to remove the head or destroy the brain. But to attract zombies to a party, you’ll need a DJ, a costume contest, film screening and zombie pinup photographs.
Schuler Books and Music at Eastwood Towne Center, 2820 Towne Centre Blvd., in Lansing, brought all these things and more together Tuesday night for their first zombie party, attracting zombie fanatics (many of whom were dressed as zombies themselves) from all across the Lansing area. Read the rest of this entry »
Graveyard Party a Success! Cross your fingers and wish for Neil!
Much adored author Neil Gaiman (*swoon*) sent out a challenge to bookstores: Throw an amazing party to promote the Newberry Award-winning young adult title The Graveyard Book. Submit a short video of the event, and the store that Neil declares had the best party will win an Author Event with him! (*swoon again*)
Schuler of Okemos put together a kick-ass party and submitted it for review, so cross your fingers and wish for Neil! In the meantime, check out this video news story from Lansing Online News
!
10.28.09
The Silence is Broken By Moaning and Decay!
The blog has been a bit quiet the past week as I have been buried under the promo avalanche of great events that always happens in the autumn! Lest you think I’ve been purposefully neglectful, I upload pictures of the culmination of a month and a half of careful, creepy preparation. If you missed it, there’s still time to see the Zombie Darkroom Pin-up Photography of Jena McShane, which will be hanging through the end of the week.
I give you Schuler’s First Annual Zombie Night (at least the pictures I have so far)!
brains…Brains…BRAINS!!!
Schuler co-owner Cecile Fehsenfeld speaks on the literary Price Wars
Schuler co-owner Cecile Fehsenfeld was recently interviewed by Bill Castanier for the Lansing City Pulse in reference to the current big-box price war that has been heating up among Amazon.com, Walmart and Target. The article came out in today’s Pulse.
I hope more news outlets pick up this line of inquiry, because most people won’t consider the price war a bad thing – “Hey look – A Great Deal!” But there are heavy questions we have to ask ourselves whenever we chose price over quality, or discount over local good.
Schuler thanks you for supporting your local, independent booksellers!
Casualties of war
Independent book stores brace for retail giants’ online price cuts
10.23.09
One Man’s Trash…: The Distant Lover
Digressions Abound Avoiding Inevitable Insecurity In Christoph Hein’s Novel
I’m on top of the world. My one arduous online class has come to an end, the holiday season is fast approaching, and I just got my first piece of new NHL-spec goalie equipment, a steeply discounted full-right Itech 9.8 catch glove. Could life be more perfect, you ask? Heh heh h-NO. But before some wiseacre can deflate my exaggerated sense of self-worth, I’ve made it a healthy habit of doing so myself. But understand, it wasn’t intentional that I synced my purchase of The Distant Lover to perfectly coincide with my first screening of Drag Me To Hell, which although ridiculously hilarious still required a calm-down reading period that lasted until 3:45 in the morning!
There’s probably one grad student who’ll tell me I have it all wrong about Christoph Hein’s novel, that I’m missing the ‘whole point’ and that my ’shallow mis-interpenetration,’ which I’ll ‘predictably’ mistake for misinterpretation, of the central conflict (which I’ll now spell like konflicht because the author’s German like me and it looks cooler) has me ‘proving the insipidity of western hypocrisy’ and making a ’studio audience judgment call’ I ‘can’t be blamed for, having been influenced for decades before my birth by an ignorant and inadmissibly boorish political arena that can’t admit to defeat.’ So you should all feel sorry for me, because I can’t see the beauty of sexual depravity.
But you can’t feel sorry yet, because I have yet to read the book and you can’t offend a grad student until after you’ve insulted his idol (ha ha, that was a joke, everything offends them). Really, I don’t expect The Distant Lover to be bad, just incredibly depressing. Read the rest of this entry »
10.21.09
Where all my hype psych-thrillers at?
I’ve been ripping through ghost stories the past couple of weeks, including the unsettling but engrossing debut novel The Birthing House by Christopher Ransom. (I’d really like someone else to read this and give me their opinion – I had trouble with disliking the main character, but it definitely had creeeepy moments.) It was worth checking out, but the problem is few modern-day tales of hauntings live up to the classic psychological supernatural thrillers like The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Maybe it’s simply that the clipped pace of modern life has left most people unable to invest the time in a psychological slow-burner, leaving us more attuned to the slam-bang-splatter cheap thrills of crappy horror films.
Well, Ms. Jackson writes in that measured, creepy cryptic style that creates a seeping terror, but it’s a layered fear. We fear the unknown without us, but we fear the unknown within us even more. Jackson’s novel walks the fine line of uncertainty: Need we fear what may be out there, or is the real horror within our own minds?
–Whitney
