Blog Posts by Subject: New Year

Looking for inspiration for your New Years resolution to make 2016 your year? Here are a few quotes from some of our favorite artists and writers on making—and not making—resolutions:

Here are some recommendations of books on Chinese New Year stories, traditions and food.

好看的新年故事

As 2011 slowly comes to an end, many of us are anxiously waiting for 2012 to arrive! Usually around this time — for some of the ambitious ones — we make New Year's resolutions. Can we actually keep them through the end of the year? Maybe. It depends on your resolutions and the goals you create to achieve them. Some have many resolutions for the year, such as creating and maintaining a 

On New Year's Eve all clocks are synchronized for the epitome of countdowns. But it wasn't always that way . . .

Another year has passed and with the beginning of the New Year comes the excitement of a “fresh start” – the endless possibilities for what we can do and achieve in the 365 days that lay ahead of us.

Are you one of the people that when they hear the words “New Year’s resolution” your first reaction is to roll your eyes? Some people think of resolutions as a bad thing, as something that will not be done, a broken promise of some sort. Why not look at resolutions as guidelines to help us get to where we want? I bet you never 

BOGO (AKA BOGOF) - an acronym for Buy One Get One Free

Recently, I rediscovered the wonders of coupons.  Never have I saved so much with just a tiny piece of paper that I cut out by following the dotted lines. Go figure, that the Sunday papers were filled with what at the time I considered to be a total waste of paper and instead it allowed me to be lost in frugality. 

The past decade has 

New year's wishes to everyone!

Just a few words on the music pictured above.  This anonymous piano work was published around 1827 by Samuel Bromberg of New York City.  The address listed on the music is 395 Broadway, but in the New York City directory of 1829-1830, the publisher is located at 80 Broadway "upstairs."  Bromberg apparently came from Denmark: his petition for naturalization was made on June 9, 1835.  (These immigration and naturalization documents are available online through

If you visit your local stationery store in September, you may well find a small selection of Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) cards. The cards will probably have the standard Hebrew greeting for the new year, Le-shanah tovah tikatevu (literally, "May you be inscribed for a good year"). They may be serious, as befits a greeting card for the "Days of Awe," or light-hearted. (I saw one recently that showed a man asking his neighbor, "How's your New Year going?" Answer: "Shofar, so good").  It's 

Journey through Time with the Picture CollectionEnter the doors of the Schwarzman Building from Fifth Avenue this week and you will find yourself, as usual at this time of year, in a jolly space with a giant Christmas tree adorned with all the trimmings of the season. But that's not the only marvel to behold.

A few weeks ago I happened to be wandering through the halls when the holiday decorations were being installed, and the festive spirit of the place, with its red ribbon and wreaths and pine and reflective gold and 

Thanks for reading my posts on modernity and fashion, Letting me exercise my long-running Art Deco passion. While the exhibition’s been given an extended stay,* To other topics I really should stray. What subjects shall I choose to beguile your time? And is it necessary that they all should rhyme? For fashion is a most powerful force, Too important to simply let it take its course.

No, we must examine and ponder its inner meaning If we are to have any hope of gleaning, The reasons behind what we wore and when, Details that spark the times we pretend, 

A few weeks ago I attended an institute in Massachusetts and heard Margie E. Lachman, a professor at Brandeis University and Chair of the Department of Psychology & Lifespan Lab there, speak about cognitive and physical changes as we grow older. She was very forthright about the bad news, while being optimistic about the good news.

Let's get the bad news over with, shall we? Yes, aging does bring declines in both physical and cognitive health. But the good news is that you can increase protective factors which will minimize or even compensate for the declines.

The 

If the New Year is to mean anything more than the difference between Wednesday and Thursday, it should contain a bit of reflection on the past, a glance over the shoulder to see where we’ve been and what we’ve done. Since this is a blog about books, reading, and libraries, I thought an examination of my personal reading list during this past year might be interesting. I’m always intrigued by the lists of others--even if, as with the New York Times’s 10 Best Books of 2008, I’ve only