The Lansing Comfort Bear Project was begun by a Lansng resident whose husband works in the Lansing Police Department. When officers encounter children in the course of investigations, they give them comfort bears to help ease what is often a difficult situation. Join us for a knit-in and learn how to easily knit bears for donation. Rae's Yarn Boutique has donated bear kits -- including the pattern, yarn and needles - for us to distribute to the first 50 knitters who arrive. Knitters should bring size 6 knitting needles and washable wool, cotton or acrylic yarns for ease of washability. For more information on the Lansing Comfort Bear Project, email lansingcomfortbear@gmail.com.

Evil Genes is the first book to tie together the cutting edge neuroscientific and genetic results that explain human evil. Unlike other popular books about human evil, Evil Genes goes far beyond explaining psychopathic behavior using old-fashioned psychological theories or religious dogma. Instead, the book centers on what neuroscience and genetics are revealing about not only psychopathy, but also the more subtly devious and malevolent behavior of seemingly ordinary people.

Barbara Oaklry, PhD, has been dubbed a female Indiana Jones - her writing combines worldwide adventure with solid research expertise. Among other adventures, She has worked as a Russian translator on Soviet trawlers in the Bering Sea, served as radio operator at the South Pole Station in Antarctica, and risen from private to regular army captain in the U.S. Army. Currently an associate professor of engineering at Oakland University in Michigan, Oakley is a recent vice president of the world's largest bioengineering society and holds a doctorate in the integrative discipline of systems engineering.

Join us in the Chapbook Cafe on the first and third Thursday of each month for our Bananagrams night! Fans and novices alike are welcome to play the hot new word game that pits you in a timed race to see who can take their lettered tiles and most quickly create a crossword grid of connecting and intersecting words. For mor information, visit www.bananagrams-intl.com/index-us.asp

Learn to play this Japanese strategy game with others! Open to the public. Join in the fun!

Grand Rapids author and poet Keleigh Wolf will be reading from her second collection of poems, Bacchus' Bachelorette, a creative amalgam of free-verse and traditional poetry. What better way to spend a beautiful spring evening than to enjoy a glass of wine while sharing an evening of verse with other poetry lovers? Stop in and experience one of GR's most popular ongoing literary series.

Barbara is the author of three wonderful books: Sophia's Lost and Found, The Dynamic Great Lakes, and The Wilderness Within.

Come meet conservative icon Sean Hannity, who will be live in our studio signing his newest best seller, Conservative Victory.

Join us as we kick off the 23rd Annual Rally of Writers with a panel discussion on "The Effect of the Internet on Publishing." Featured panelists will include Bill Castanier -- literary journalist for the Lansing City Pulse and founding blogger of mittenlit.com - discussing methods of harnessing New Media in publishing and promotion (websites, Social Networking, e-publishing and self-publishing); Karen Dionne, author of environmental thrillers, co-founder of the online writers' community Backspace, and managing editor of The Big Thrill, a webzine with over 1,100 members in a dozen countries; and Bonnie Bucqueroux, a web pioneer who recently retired from Michigan State University's School of Journalism to devote herself to building new models of online journalism.

This Intermediate through Young Adult book club meets monthly and focuses on the fantasy genre.

Millions of readers have fallen in love with Little Women, Louisa May Alcott's enduring and treasured classic. But how could Louisa May Alcott - who never married or fell in love, as far as we know - have written so convincingly about young love and heartbreak without having experienced it herself? In The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, Kelly O'Connor McNees gracefully mixes fact and fiction as she imagines a secret love affair Louisa experienced in the summer of 1855, an episode lost to history, which would ultimately inspire Jo and Laurie's relationship in Little Women. Join us for a night of great women's fiction and our traditional grab-bag book drawing!

This group learns about the Italian language and culture in the casual setting of the Studio.

As the national campaign manager for Ralph Nader's historic runs for president in 2000 and 2004, Theresa Amato had a rare ringside role in two of the most hotly contested presidential elections this country has seen. In Grand Illusion, she gives us a witty, thoughtful critique of the American electoral system, as well as a powerful argument for opening up the contest as if people and their daily lives mattered.

Looking beyond the Nader story to campains waged by challengers John Anderson, Ross Perot, Pat Buchanan, and others, Amato shows how limiting ourselves to two candidates deprives our country of a robust political life, strips would-be contenders of their free speech and association rights, and cheats voters out of meaningful political choices.

Join us for a meeting of our monthly Comic Book Discussion Group, exploring and investigating the publishing industry's biggest boom medium - comics and graphic novels! This month's selection is Ball Peen Hammer by Adam Rapp and George O'Connor. Each Monthly suggestion is 20% off.

This monthly knitters group meets by the fireplace.

At her heaviest, Michigan author Nancy Makin weighed 703 pounds. Since May 2003, she has shed 530 of them and has kempt it off for five years. She didn't diet, take pills or have pre-made meals delivered to her. There was no fitness trainer nor did she land herself on a reality competition. She did it all with the click of a mouse.

Because of her weight, Nancy had been homebound for over a dozen years. Imagine being imprisoned in your own home - not noticing changes in your neighborhood or even changes in the world. Everything she did, from sleeping to using bathroom, was a life-threatening challenge. One day, her sister bought her a computer. A techno-phobe, Nancy ignored it for months, until finally boredom and curiosity got the best of her. And there, in a chat room, she found the friendliness and human interaction she had been missing for so long.

A moving tale of losing your sense of self and then rediscovering it in the most unlikely of places, Nancy's story will bring you tears of grief, laughter and joy. Don't miss this inspiring event!

This group is open to the public. Grab your instrument and work through the writing process with other area songwriters.

In Rosemary Harris' enjoyable third Dirty Business book, lovable amateur sleuth and gardening professional Paula Holliday learns that one of her best clients, Caroline Sturgis, is actually Monica Jane Weithorn, and escaped convict! Things really get muddy when Caoline's husband hires Paula to discover who turned his wife into the authorities!

Rosemary Harris'  debut novel, Pushing Up Daisies, was a Mystery Guild selection and was nominated for an Agatha Award for best first novel. Rosemary is a member of Sisters In Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and CMGA (Connecticut Master Gardners Association), and is also a Board member of MWA/NY and President of Sisters In Crime, New England.

We'll have delicious refreshments and lots of mystery books to give away so don't miss this Get-A-Clue Mystery event!

See what this mystery genre reading group is investigating monthly.

Have some great fun at Schuler's own game night. This month's game is Killer Bunnies.

Join us in the Chapbook Cafe on the third Thursday of each month for our Bananagrams night! Fans and novices alike are welcome to play the hot new word game that pits you in a timed race to see who can take their lettered tiles and most quickly create a crossword grid of connecting and intersecting words for more information, visit www.bananagrams-intl.com/index-us.asp

We're continuing our increasingly popular series of artist exhibitions in April with the unveiling of the photographic excellence of Jim Gebben. Those of you who know Jim's whimsical and provocative work from his association with Destination 1111 Gallery will need no convincing to join us in a celebration of his recent work. For those unfamiliar with Jim's work, the evening will serve as a perfect introduction to his unique creative sensibility.

Join us for a special story-time with Lansing author Deborah Diesen! Deb had a hit with her first picture book, The Pout-Pout Fish, named one of the Top Ten Childrens' Books of 2008 by TIME magazine. You won't want to miss her story-time reading of her new book The Barefooted, Bad-Tempered Baby Brigade!

This group is hosted by Mayumi Balfour of Sister Cities international. The group learns about the Japanese language and culture in a casual setting.

Schuler Books has teamed up with the Lansing Community College Science Department to bring you Cafe Scientifique, a monthly science discussion group. Join LCC professors for an animated discussion of the important science issues of the day! This month;s topic is Creatures of Crime: The Role of Insects in Crime Scene Investigations, presented by Forensic Entomologist and MSU Professor Richard Merritt. Medicolegal forensic entomology deals with insect involvement in events surrounding felonies -- usually violent crimes such as murder, suicide and rape, but also involving cases of extreme neglect and abuse. Because insects and other arthropods have predictable life histories, habitats, known distributions, and developmental rates, they can provide important information about when, where and even how a particular crime occurred. Merritt will show some of the major insects involved in crime scene investigations, explain how to determine the PMI (the time between death and corpse discovery, which is referred to as the postmortem interval), and discuss some major criminal cases he has been involved with to assess the role of forensically important insects.

Join us for a monthly book club sponsored by the Michigan State University Association for Women in Science (MSU AWIS). They will be discussing Chapter 7 of Mothers on the Fast Track: How a Generation Can Balance Family and Careers, by Mary A. Mason. MSU AWIS is an organization that advocates for and provides a network of, resources and information for women in science with the goal to help them achieve their full potential. Membership is open to men and women at any career stage who advocate for or want to learn more about women in science.

Stop by the store on Earth Day and you can write a poem on recycled seed paper to celebrate poetry month! Whether you keep the poem or plant it is up to you!

Meet Lansing author Eric Dawe as he discusses his debut novel Aeneas: Last King of Troy. The ambitious epic novel is an adaptation of Virgil's classic, The Aeneid, that explores the intense relationship between the king of the Trojan outcasts, Aeneas and Dido, the exiled Tyrian queen, while following the Trojans' quest for a lost homeland and the promise of the future glory of a new Troy that will rise, Phoenix-like, from the ashes, and conquer the world.

Join us in the studio for a poetry reading and booksigning with local favorites Jack Ridl and Linda Nemec Foster.

Join this "rabble-rousing folk troubadour" for an event no to be missed.

Laura Resau has lived and traveled extensively in Latin America - experiences which inspired her books for young people. Her latest children's novel, Star in the Forest, was praised by Booklist as "a child's migration story with simple immediacy... an unforgettable narrative." Her previous young adult novels - The Indigo Notebook, Red Glass and What the Moon Saw - have garnered many starred reviews and awards, including the IRA YA Fiction Award, the Americas Award and a spot on Oprah's Kids' Book List. Resaus' works have been celebrated for their sensitive treatment of immigrtation issues. Resau donates a portion of her royalties to indigenous rights organizations in Latin America.

Join us as we celebrate the release of The Big Green's annual print edition! Don't miss the refreshments and entertainment as MSU's favorite online magazine becomes MSU's favorite print magazine!

Join us for an exciting talk with Maestro Robert Lyall in our studio for Porgy and Bess.

Horror readers unite! This month the Schuler horror reading group is looking at Horns, the sophomore novel by Joe Hill (previous publications include Heart-Shaped Box and the short story collection 20th Century Ghosts). Each monthly selection is 20% off.

Join us for New York Times bestselling author Tim LaHaye and author of the Chamber of Justice series Craig Parshall for their newest addition to The End series: Edge of Apocolypse.

Each month a member of our staff facilitates this reading group.

Join us as National Society of Arts & Letters High School champions from all over the Greater Lansing Area recite their winning works of poetry!

Adam will be discussing his new book, Freshwater Boys, an intriguing collection of short stories set in and around Michigan's Great Lakes.

This month's focus will be the art of the polish; the little things that can make writing shine. Critique session to follow. For more information, contact planet.fic@gmail.com

Pianist DJ DeSmyter is the latest local talent to grace our stage on the last Friday of the month. There's no better way to TGIF the end of each month than to grab a bite in the Chapbook Cafe, enjoy a glass of your favorite beer or wine, and sit back to soak in the sounds of the best musicians in West Michigan - all in the comfort of your favorite bookstore.

Matt turk is a veteran performer who has engaged audiences around the world, both as a hard-rocking bandleader and an acoustic folk artist.

Matthew Gavin Frank spent six months in Barolo, Italy (pop. 646), living out of a tent in the garden of the local Pittatore farmhouse. Through the Pittatore family, he was able to secure work picking wine grapes for fame vinter Luciano Sandrone. Barolo details his developing relationship with the region's families, restaurateurs, butchers, vinters, local foodstuffs, strange markets, and circus-like atmosphere. Rich with real Italian small-town "characters" and a wealth of historical and culinary information, Barolo is a blend of intimate travelogue and memoir. (The title refers to both a Piemontese Italian town and an Italian wine). Barolo has moments of flamboyance as well as ruminative meditation on foreign travel (and its many alien seductions), filtered through food and wine.

Broke is the new black. It's no secret that the Michigan economy has been among the hardest hit over the past few years. Now you can meet an author who was "broke before it was cool" and can teach you how to embrace modest means and still live life to the fullest! Don't miss this fascinating author talk and signing with Michigan author Laura Lee to promote her latest release Broke is Beautiful: Living and Loving the Cash-Strapped Life!!

Not a how-to manual on dealing with a tight budget or simple living, Lee's Broke Is Beautiful is a guide to keeping your sanity during tough times by seeing poverty from different perspectives - historical, sociological and cultural. Pro-poverty, Lee addresses what it feels like to be broke in a consumer culture, presenting a lack of wealth not as a problem to be solved but as a normal state of being. As she says, "not being Donald Trump unites us all."

Full of interesting factoids (for instance: Americans spend six hours a week shopping an only fourty inutes playing with their kids; Americans now have less leisure time than the typical serf in the Middle Ages) Broke is Beautiful celebrates the cash-strapped life as a gateway to more serenity and self-awareness, and reassures readers that even in this financially insecure world, it's possible to survive and thrive.

Learn to play this Japanese Strategy game with others! Open to the public. Join in the fun!

Calling all players. A group of people play American Mah Jongg every Thursday afternoon in the Okemos Schuler Books & Music store's Cafe. The group invites all players to join them Thursdays at noon for lunch and 1:00pm (until about 3pm) to play American Mah Jongg in the Cafe. If you don't know how to play but would like to learn the game, the group recommends reading A Beginner's Guide to American Mah Jongg by Elaine Sandberg.

The Munsons are the husband and wife authors of legal suspense novels drawn from their challenging experiences in the U.S. justice system. More Info at dianeanddavidmunson.com