Scrabble club will meet in the studio when no events are scheduled.  All ages and all skill levels welcome.

Who says obsession is a bad thing?! Badenya grew out an obsession with (primarily) African rhythms and has evolved into a percussion ensemble playing both traditional African rhythms and original material. 2010 has been a year of tremendous growth for us! With our members juggling several projects, we (successfully!) recruited additional talent. Andrea, Matt, Sean and Tim have given us extra horsepower and flexibility through their hard work, built on the foundation laid by Steven, Kelli, Lee and Deb.  Growing to 8 members has allowed us to add some exciting new music and venues!

Heather McElhatton’s addictive new choose-your-own-ending novel for adults, you can find out exactly what you’d do. Would you buy a mansion? Save an endangered species? Have a debauched weekend on Sex Island?

A follow-up to her bestselling debut, PRETTY LITTLE MISTAKES, MILLION LITTLE MISTAKES lets you indulge all your strange dreams and dark desires, taking you from the lap of luxury to the pits of despair depending on which road you travel. One beginning leads to over 50 different endings, which will surprise, shock, and delight readers as they hunt for happiness.

Woven into this wildly funny and unpredictable book is the deeper question, can money buy happiness? Twenty-two million dollars can buy a lot, but can it buy a happy ending? Will your fortune be lost in a Ponzi scheme? Will your luxury cruise be hijacked by South Seas pirates? Will your wildest fantasy bring you to new heights of pleasure or just to an STD clinic? Is your destiny to become a philanthropist, a pharmaceutical tycoon, a happy home maker or burlesque stripper?

About the Author: Heather McElhatton (MACKLE-hatton) is a writer and independent producer for Public Radio International. Her commentaries and stories have been heard nationally on This American Life, Marketplace, Weekend America, Sound Money and The Savvy Traveler. She also produced the radio literary series Talking Volumes. Besides ongoing reporting and radio commentary, Heather appeared on Ira Glass’s very first episode of the television version of This American Life. Her debut novel was a choose-your-own-ending book for adults called Pretty Little Mistakes.

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

Are you living the life you imagined? Is there anything you’d have done differently if you could? Those are the questions asked in Kristina Riggle’s unforgettable new novel.

In high school, Cami and Anna were as close as they could be...now, years later, both have returned to their hometown to face the people they had once left behind. Anna must confront her mother, still distraught over the abandonment of her husband, and come to terms with choices she had made years before. While Cami returns home to stay with her alcoholic father, she uncovers a secret he sought to keep which could change her life and salvage her future. They reconnect with their classmate, Amy, who can’t understand why achieving the thin body and handsome man of her dreams hasn’t given her the happily-ever-after she desired. This is a novel that digs deep and touches the heart of the issues so many women face-the quest for perfection, the hope of love, the value of family and importance of always striving for your dream.

Kristina Riggle lives and writes in West Michigan. Her debut novel, Real Life & Liars, was praised by Publishers Weekly for its “humorous and humane storytelling” and by Booklist as “a moving and accomplished first novel.” 

Calling all players.  A group of people play American Mah Jongg every Thursday afternoon in the Okemos Schuler Books & Music store’s Café.  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 Café.  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.

Greg Bliss currently cohosts the Smokin’ Spoken Word weekly show featured at The Eastown Hookah Lounge and Blaze’s Hookah Lounge on the campus of Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.  Before moving to Grand Rapids he was one of three founding members of the Michigan Shakespeare Festival in Jackson, Michigan.  After moving to Grand Rapids Greg served on the performance art committee at UICA for several years, co-founded the X-Performance Group, brainstormed the famous 24 Theatre sessions and has hosted many events and workshops at his Etage Bleu performance studios.  Currently, he is developing a series of video performances with Prose PC.  Over the course of the last ten years he has performed and competed across the nation including special performances in NYC, Seattle, Chicago, St. Louis, Minneapolis, Milwaukee, Detroit, Ann Arbor and Kalamazoo.

Scrabble club will meet in the studio when no events are scheduled.  All ages and all skill levels welcome.

Join us for an exciting event that will explore an original approach to the climate change crisis which represents a call-to-action based on moral and spiritual premises. Moral Ground presents diverse viewpoints by writers from every walk of life, encompassing an engaging discussion with specific suggestions for personal action and a positive, hopeful, and forward-looking perspective on a divisive issue. With a forward written by Desmond Tutu, Moral Ground appeals to the sense of ethical values and moral responsibility that every human has to take care of the planet, for other species, for ourselves, and for future generations. Editor Michael Nelson, a professor of environmental ethics at Michigan State University – along with a number of his colleagues – will read from the book’s essays, written by over 80 visionaries, including the Dalai Lama, Thomas L. Friedman, John Paul II, Barbara Kingsolver and Barack Obama.

The HighMay transition took place in 2009 and is beginning to stick, as the new album reaches completion and the list of shows gets larger.  The new music is quite the eclectic mix, with influences ranging from:  Ryan Adams, My Morning Jacket, Elliott Smith, Kings of Leon, Jack Johnson, Citizen Cope, and David Gray among others. This tour will feature a duo, with Michael Delorean providing backing with Cello, Mandolin and guitar.

Join our Italian language group for an evening of Italian language and culture.

Hospice of Michigan and Schuler Books brings you Ace of Cakes Chef Duff to Grand Rapids!

Join us for our Annual Teacher appreciation night and enjoy a 25% store-wide discount with your Classroom Discount card (or sign up for your Classroom card and receive your discount on the spot!).*

We’ve organized a group of presentations on the theme of using comics and graphic novels as teaching tools! Meet Ruth McNally Barshaw, author and artist of the popular Ellie McDoodle series, as she gives a talk and drawing demonstration; and learn how to apply comics to the classroom through presentations by artist and comics educator Jerzy Drozd and DC Comics writer (and intermediate readers author) Dan Mishkin, co-founders of the annual Kids Read Comics convention, held in Dearborn.

We’ll have lots of Giveaways including books, posters, activities for your classroom, as well as delicious refreshments!

*Storewide discount does not include Special Order Books, Periodicals, DVDs & CDs or items sold in the Chapbook Cafe.

This month’s selections are Superman: Brainiac by Gary Frank and Geoff Johns and Superman: Red Son by Mark Millar and Dave Johnson. Each monthly suggestion is 20% off.

Knit one, purl two.  This monthly knitters group meets by the fireplace.  Bring your needles and a skein and work on projects with others, or show off finished ones, too!

Calling all players.  A group of people play American Mah Jongg every Thursday afternoon in the Okemos Schuler Books & Music store’s Café.  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 Café.  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.

Scrabble club will meet in the studio when no events are scheduled.  All ages and all skill levels welcome.

Join us in the Chapbook Café 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 more information, visit www.bananagrams-intl.com/index-us.asp

Join us for a talk and signing with Harry Dolan, Michigan author of Bad Things Happen, now available in paperback! Critics from the New York Times to the Chicago Tribune to Publishers Weekly raved about this stunning debut that is as unpredictable as it is fresh and literary.

Set in the hallowed and often treacherous halls of ‘Gray Streets,’ a crime magazine, Bad Things Happen offers no end of suspects for the series of murders that follow. Could it be one of the many talented writers, all of whom are experts on death and covering it up? The secretarial assistant who’s too smart and conniving for her own good? The cunning wife of the publisher, with whom David Loogan is having an affair? The petty thief whom Loogan believes to be dead but who turns up at Loogan’s house in the middle of the night? The retired cop who shows up out of nowhere with detailed information on Loogan’s past? No one is innocent, and no one is safe in this pulse-pounding mystery that blows the genre apart with great skill and nuance.

Join us in the Studio (or café if Studio is in use) for a round of everyone’s favorite word game… Scrabble.  All age groups and skill levels welcome.

AnDro mixes traditional Celtic music and world beat rhythms with some jam-band-esque improv.  The line-up includes:
James Spalink (formerly of Puck Faire) on bouzouki and hurdy-gurdy. Michele Venegas (formerly of Fon Mor) on fiddle.  Eddie Eicher (currently with Hip Pocket) on percussion.  Fred Willson (formerly of Amadaun) on guitar, mandolin and vocals.  In January, AnDro was awarded the WYCE "Jammie" Award for "Best Traditional Album".

Author and speaker Denise Rowe loves to use symbolism and the creative arts to inspire and help people heal inwardly. As a licensed mental health practitioner, she believes in casting truth in childlike terms in order to reach the deep places of the heart. Dragonfly Denny: the Pursuit of Destiny is exquisitely illustrated from cover to cover in pen and ink and watercolor by award-winning artist Violet Freeland. This metaphor story poem is about daring to dream big, finding a faith that fosters inner healing, courageously risking the unfamiliar, and persevering to own one’s destiny. Because we never outgrow our need to dream, Dragonfly Denny is a tale of inspiration for all ages.

Chez Alice et Julien, our French reading group, meets.

The Girls’ Night Out author series is honored to launch the tour for one of the most buzzed-about books of the season when Emma Donoghue comes to our Lansing store to promote her riveting new novel Room! The book has already been selected as a #1 IndieNext pick for September and has been longlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

To five-year-old Jack, Room is the entire world. It’s where he was born, where he and his Ma eat and play and learn. At night Ma puts him safely to sleep in the wardrobe, in case Old Nick comes. Room is home to Jack, but to Ma it’s the prison where she’s been held for seven years. Through determination, ingenuity, and fierce motherly love, Ma has created a life for her son. But Jack’s curiosity is building alongside Ma’s desperation – and she knows Room cannot contain either indefinitely…

Told in the inventive, funny, and poignant voice of Jack, Room is a powerful story of a mother and son whose love lets them survive the impossible.

If you don’t attend another book event this year, this is the night to be present! As always we’ll have goodies and our grab bag book giveaway to enjoy as well.

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

Talk and Booksigning with D.E. Johnson, award-winning mystery author of Detroit Electric Scheme.  

“The Detroit Electric Scheme is a jaunt through turn of the century Detroit and a window into the launch of the automotive industry. Swiftly paced and peopled with fascinating, darkly colorful characters, Johnson treats the reader to a compelling mystery laced with vivid historical detail. It's a historical mystery in high gear!-- Ann Stamos, author of Bitter Tide
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Schuler Books has teamed up with the Lansing Community College Science Department to bring you Café 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 to be announced. Visit http://lcc.edu/science/cafe_scientifique.aspx for more details.

Schuler Books Downtown is a venue that will feature the artwork of Kevin Collander, Jan Ashley, Christine Stephens, and more!

Calling all players.  A group of people play American Mah Jongg every Thursday afternoon in the Okemos Schuler Books & Music store’s Café.  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 Café.  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.

Scrabble club will meet in the studio when no events are scheduled.  All ages and all skill levels welcome.

Join us in celebrating the release of The Detroit Electric Scheme, the debut mystery from Kalamazoo author D.E. Johnson. The book is a fast-paced, detail-filled ride through early-1900s Detroit, involving murder, blackmail, organized crime, the development of a wonderful friendship, and the inside story on early electric automobiles. Populated with fascinating characters, both real and fictional, from a then-flourishing Detroit, the book brings The Dodge brothers and Edsel Ford to life as they interact with denizens of the sordid underbelly of the Motor City, such as Vito Adamo, Detroit’s first Mob boss, and Big Boy, the bouncer at a saloon so notorious the newspapers called it “The Bucket of Blood.” This expertly plotted debut delivers with great research, wonderfully flawed yet likable characters, and a shattering climax.

West Michigan’s premiere jazz trio will be rocking the Studio at Schuler Books!  www.fredknappmusic.com for details.  Fred keeps the beat and controls the rhythm of this splendid trio. 

Set in the 1960s and '70s, Owe It to the Wind is a story of love and betrayal. It begins with the high school romance between Michael, an underprivileged all-star athlete, and Meg, an only child in an upper-middle-class home. Determined to flee an abusive parent, Michael abruptly departs their small hometown in Michigan immediately after graduation to play football for the University of Southern California. Before he leaves though, the young lovers make a pact to meet in five years. Neither realizes the consequences of this decision or how it will forever shape their futures.

Girls’ Night Out presents an encore August event: MaryJanice Davidson, New York Times-bestselling author of The Undead Series and the creator of paranormal women’s fiction, is back with a brand new series that is witty, sexy and delightfully over the top -- think Davidson with a dash of Jennifer Crusie and Janet Evanovich.

In the rollicking new novel Me, Myself and Why, the sweet and innocent twist of girl-next-door, Cadence Jones, is not your typical woman and certainly not your typical FBI agent. But it’s her special “talent” which makes Cadence such a valuable cop. That talent? She’s certifiably insane.

Multiple Personality Disorder, that is.In fact, everyone in her super secret, super specialized branch of the FBI has some sort of mental illness that gives them a unique perspective on the crimes they solve. For Cadence, that’s her other selves – Shiro, who fears nothing and can catch the importance in tiny details, and Adrienne, who loves to fight – and hurt – when it counts. No one wants to meet Adrienne.

Cadence’s talent never comes in more handy than when she and her sociopathic partner, George (who would just as soon kill you as find your murderer), are tagged to bring down the Threefer Killer. You won’t want to miss this exciting author event, complete with goodies and our grab-bag giveaway!

We’re getting in on the MaryJanice Davidson fun by discussing the first book in her Undead series: Undead and Unwed!

Join us for the Grand Premier of the Spartan Wine Society, a new Michigan State University group for wine enthusiasts and professionals. Schuler and SWS are coming together to present a talk and signing for The History of Michigan Wines: 150 Years of Winemaking along the Great Lakes by Lorri Hathaway and Sharon Kegerreis. The co-authors’ previous title, From the Vine: Exploring Michigan Wineries, is Michigan’s premier wine book and the winner of a 2008 Michigan Notable Book Award. With their second book they present the first complete documentation of the history of Michigan's dynamic wine industry. Expect some of the biggest names in Michigan wine gathered to kickoff a great new Spartan Wine tradition!

Virgil Flowers, the protégé of Lucas Davenport (the star of John Sandford’s New York Times #1 bestselling Prey series) returns to the spotlight in Bad Blood.

Bad Blood opens on a late fall Sunday in southern Minnesota. A farmer brings in a load of soybeans to a local grain elevator – and a young man hits him on the head with a steel bar, drops him into the grain bin, waits until he’s sure he’s dead, and then calls the sheriff to report the “accident.” Suspicious, the sheriff calls in Virgil Flowers, who quickly breaks the kid down…and the next day the boy’s found hanging in his cell. Remorse? Virgil isn’t so sure, and as he investigates he begins to uncovers a multigeneration, multifamily conspiracy – a series of crimes of such monstrosity that, though he’s seen an awful lot in his life, even he has difficulty in comprehending it…and in figuring out what to do next.

John Sandford is a pseudonym for John Camp, a former police reporter and Pulitzer-Prize winning journalist whose varied passions include archaeology, art, photography, hunting and fishing.

Calling all players.  A group of people play American Mah Jongg every Thursday afternoon in the Okemos Schuler Books & Music store’s Café.  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 Café.  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.

Scrabble club will meet in the studio when no events are scheduled.  All ages and all skill levels welcome.

Ray Kamalay is an American Jazz guitarist and singer from Detroit, MI who has recorded several jazz records with his group, the Red Hot Peppers. Kamalay is noted for his work with many folk music groups and notable jazz artists such as the Chenille Sisters, Johnny Frigo, and Howard Armstrong. Kamalay is also well-known for his work in music education, giving lectures and demonstrations on folk music topics.

Grand Rapids Amateur Astronomical Association meets in the Studio.