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.

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.

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

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

By Martin Berman

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.

“I am a longtime zombie fan — I would say I’m such a fan that I have a half sleeve tattoo of zombies,” said Kerry Cripe of Dansville, Mich. “Ever since I was a real young kid, I was into the (George A. Romero) films. I just had to come.”

Cripe, along with his daughter, both were made up in full zombie attire. Both were sprayed with fake blood, wore ripped shirts and sported deep gashes and Cripe even appeared to be missing an eye.

Michelle Kunze, of Lansing, dressed as a zombie prostitute.

“I’m just here for the zombies,” Kunze said. “It’s the first (event) so hopefully we can do a bunch more if it goes well, so we need to put the zombie word out there.”

Credit for the zombie bash goes to Schuler Books’ Promotions Coordinator Whitney Spotts.

“It’s pretty fun that I actually get to spend someone else’s money to do this,” Spotts said. “It started out as a gaming night because we have these great zombie board games. And then I remembered that Jena and I had talked about this photo shoot … so that was the centerpiece. And then we added the zombie DJ … and the movies were a no-brainer because that’s where the zombie love starts.”

That love that started with those old movies is gaining popularity and likely will to be the next big craze, Spotts said.

“Everyone knows the vampire boom that ‘Twilight’ brought about. Well, I created a poster that said, ‘Zombies are the new Vampires,’ and it’s true — that’s the next wave in books that are coming out,” Spotts said.

At the center of the bookstore, hanging from string tied to the ceiling, were Jena McShane’s photos of pinup style zombie portraits. The Lansing photographer found a niche for the old-school feel and poses of pinup photography and after several shoots for school classes at Lansing Community College, she decided to start a project more for herself.

“Zombie pinups just popped in my head; I have no clue how that happened. I really like zombie movies but I’m not obsessed with them,” she said. “I’m really excited that people have seemed really enthused about this and I probably will further my pinup photography projects.”

Capping off the zombie party was a costume contest, offering almost $300 worth of gift certificates from local businesses to the winners. Happy with the turnout, Spotts said she was in her element among the undead guests.

“I’ve never been so happy to do work in my life,” she said.

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

!

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!!!

The First Place Costume Contest
Winners: Kerry Cripe and his
cohort!

Fourth Place winner for uber-creepy gouged-out eye!

5th place: Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
Zombie!!!

6th Place: Bobblehead Zombies!

The Grim Reaper has come for our Souls!

Jena McShane, our Zombie Darkroom photographer (left) and Christie McBride in her Zombie Pin-up!

All of the Pin-up Girls together! BTW – there will be a calendar forthcoming, which will be available at Schuler Books in Lansing!

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

by Bill Castanier

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. But depressing things can be fun and enlightening. Any step forward results in added experience, and I place a high value on building character. Thanks, Bill Watterson.

The Distant Lover popped out at me during a cursory surf of Used Books, and something about the thin paperback title’s simple wording and urgently capitalized title agitated me. But fate is neither kind nor fair. The book next to it was Richard Hell’s Go Now. A distant lover? Or a guy named Dick Hell? I had Alison Lohman on one shoulder and Rose Byrne on the other. “Lover,” says Alison. “Hell,” says Rose. “Which reminds me,” says Alison, “Drag Me To Hell debuts unrated on DVD and Blu-Ray on Tuesday, October 13.” “I haven’t seen it,” I say. Rose laughs. “It’s good enough to buy,” says Alison. “I already have Matchstick Men, can’t you be happy?” I say. “Even though Rose was in Sunshine and 28 Weeks Later, she starred in Damages, and I know how much you hate TV,” says Alison. “Blast!” Rose and I shout. She snaps her pitchfork in two and disappears. Alison high-fives my thumb and disappears.

So I forwent Hell’s roadtrip book (thank goodness) for Christoph Hein’s exploration of emotional vacuousness and purposelessness in East Germany. One konflicht solved. One more to explore. I’m expecting a superfast read that will leave me emotionally drained and faithless in anything pure and good for at least two days. I’ll try my best not to mope, but it may be tough, no matter how rewarding it will be. To paraphrase Ellen Griswold, I don’t know what to say except it’s East Germany, and we’re all in misery.

-Patrick, Schuler Books

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

Rhoda Janzen, an English professor at Hope College in Holland, is absolutely rocking out the reviews for her debut memoir Mennonite in a Little Black Dress!

Rhoda will be at Schuler of Lansing next week, at 7 p.m. on October 29, for our Girls’ Night Out author series, and we are so excited about the buzz her book is building across the country!

She got a four-star review in the current issue of People Magazine, and Time magazine has posted an interview with her that you can read after the jump!

Also, click through this link to read a hilarious article Rhoda wrote in September for New York Times magazine called The Tractor Driver or the Pothead?

Rhoda Janzen: From Modern to Mennonite

When Rhoda Janzen went away to college, she was determined to leave her past behind. But unlike the average independence-minded freshman, Janzen was Mennonite — a member of a small, strict Christian denomination with only 110,000 members in the U.S. She went on to earn a Ph.D. from UCLA and become an English professor. But in 2006, at age 43, a personal crisis sent her back to her Mennonite roots in Fresno, Calif. Janzen has written a new book about her unusual journey, Mennonite in a Little Black Dress (Henry Holt). TIME senior reporter Andrea Sachs reached Janzen in Holland, Mich., where she is an English professor at Hope College.

The Mennonites are often confused with the Amish, right?
Indeed they are. The Amish used to be a part of the Mennonite Church, but they broke up with us in 1691. [The two faiths] still share many points of belief and also a very simple lifestyle, although the Amish tend to be way more conservative.

What are the basic Mennonite beliefs and practices now?
The Mennonites are a Protestant group. They believe in adult baptism, and they have this long history of political protest of war. They have several hundred years of being conscientious objectors. But I think what a lot of people would say is that they tend to be very conservative in their lifestyle choices.

Does that affect what they wear?
It affected my community when I grew up. Many Mennonites wear old-fashioned hats, aprons and so on. But those tend to be the group called the Old Mennonites. I grew up among the Mennonite Brethren, and they just wore conservative clothes that you wouldn’t necessarily stop and stare at on the street. Back then I wasn’t allowed to wear jeans. My mom felt that skirts gave more glory to God.

Did you feel a sense of differentness when you were growing up?
I felt so different. I went to public school. I didn’t know anything about pop culture or song lyrics or dancing or anything like that. I was embarrassed for how I dressed and was embarrassed that I didn’t have that same cultural knowledge. It didn’t occur to me that the Mennonites might have something that other people were missing.

At what age did you start thinking, Oh, I have to break out of this?
As soon as I realized that breaking out was an option. I had a little rebel fantasy pretty early on. When I graduated high school and moved on to college, that’s when I began making decisions.

What did that feel like? It must have felt like a big break, a big transition.
It did. I think maybe a lot of kids do the lifestyle stuff first, like they’ll drink beer. I didn’t do that so much as really begin to read outside the stuff I’d been trained on. So I began to read about other religions and read philosophy and literature. When you get immersed in that as a young thinker, it tends to stretch you a little bit.

What circumstances ultimately compelled you to go back to the Mennonite community?
Well, I had a sort of critical year, a crisis year. My husband of 15 years announced one day that he was leaving me for a guy named Bob, whom he had met on Gay.com. Then, six days later, I was in a car accident. I was a mess, really, so I went to the only place I could figure out to go that wouldn’t cost much, and that was home to the Mennonites.

So what was it like when you first went back?
I had expected to sleep in, hole up out of self-pity, but my mother was so busy and cheerful that I didn’t have time for any of that. The very first morning, when I was still jet-lagged, she stuck her head into my old bedroom and said, “You want to help me make pie-by-the-yard? I picked up a big bag of Granny Smiths!” I found it comforting to snap back into old patterns, with my mom presiding over the kitchen in her safari apron. Trailing one’s 70-year-old parents around town is an excellent and under-discussed cure for heartbreak.

What was most surprising to you?
I had remembered the Mennonites of my youth as congenial folks, so it wasn’t a surprise that I loved them as an adult. What was a surprise was that I loved what they stood for — I loved the faith itself, and the way they consistently demonstrated what they believed. For instance, when my mom learned that an elderly woman from her church was recuperating from a surgery, it wasn’t a question of if she would visit. It was a question of whether to bring homemade zwieback or a tray of platz. It was the genuine human warmth of this community that set me thinking about faith in new ways.

What do you suppose your life would have been like if you had stayed there originally?
There was a Mennonite guy whom everybody sort of expected me to marry. Hi, Gary! He was tall, I was tall. Our parents were friends. We both were interested in theology, maybe even in seminary. This man and I never actually dated, and he ended up moving in a different direction too. But if I had stayed, I would have wanted to marry a man like him — thoughtful, reflective, family-oriented. I would have put embarrassing meatball sandwiches in my kids’ lunches. Lord knows I would have saved money on shoes.