Posts from Chatham Square Library

For me, the fall has always been a time of fresh starts and new beginnings. The promise of many new school years continues long past graduation as I advance in age and each autumn still feels like an opportunity.

This year I have been getting my finances in order and naturally I used library resources, the most fiscally responsible tools available. Where to start? My Financial Intelligence list of accessible personal finance resources has a few recent titles explaining "the new normal."

A woman came into the Library's Center for Reading and Writing, where she was enrolled in a basic literacy class. Visibly shaken, she pulled a staff member aside and confided that she wasn’t sure if she would be able to continue in the class. She had felt some pain in her breast, and her doctor had recommended that she have a mammogram. Not having any idea what a mammogram was, she understood it to mean that she had cancer. The staff member showed her how to find information about mammograms in library books and online. After consulting these resources, she went to her next doctor's appointment knowing what to expect and what questions to ask.

The curve of a guitar; a kerchiefed woman holding a white chicken; the steeply sloped rooftops of an unknown city; a bird of prey with a long sharp beak.

By now we are well into The Servants by M.M. Smith. Our protagonist, Mark, is 11 years old and unhappy. Having just relocated to Brighton from London, he has no friends and spends the rainy, chilly days skateboarding by himself. Full of resentment against his new stepfather, David, and confused by his mother's illness, he meets an old lady who unlocks for him a bygone era in her basement flat in the 200-year-old house David owns.

Welcome to the Reader's Den selection for the month of February 2012: The Servants by M.M. Smith. Michael Marshall Smith is generally known for his sci-fi and mystery novels. The Servants — a subtle little ghost story and coming-of-age novel — is a departure from this genre.

If you haven't experienced, or perhaps even heard about, ReelAbilities, this may be the year to discover this unique festival, which is a film festival, but also so much more.

On Wednesday, November 9, the New Horizons Band for Adults played a concert at Chatham Square Library before an appreciative audience. It was their premiere performance at this library, and for a member of the flute section, it was a homecoming.

Novelist Henry Chang, who discovered his love of books as a kid at the Chatham Square Library, still remembers how proud he was to get his first library card.
 
Now Chang has even more to be proud of when he walks into the Library — seeing his own books on the shelf in the mystery section, between Raymond Chandler and Agatha Christie.

According to the Chinese Lunar Calendar, 2011 is the year of the rabbit, a zodiac symbol that is equivalent to Pisces in the Western tradition. This year the festival begins on February 3rd and ends sometime on the 17th but the celebrations may continue beyond that date in some households.  Some people may host special dinners on the eve of February 2nd to mark a new year of happiness and prosperity.  From America to Australia, Chinese New Year is widely celebrated and has a history that can be traced back to Ancient China.  

For the second year the Chatham Square Library participated in the Children’s Day Fair sponsored by Immigrant Social Services, Inc., an organization which provides afterschool programs and summer camps for children in the Chinatown area.  More than 130 children registered for the summer reading program at this special event.

They are all topics of programs or workshops for adults coming up at various New York Public Library locations over the next few months!

Leg warmers will be knitted at the Chatham Square Library in Chinatown. Wakefield Library in the north Bronx will host a useful series of free food preparation workshops by Cornell University Cooperative Extension Program. St. George Library Center on Staten Island will be the place to meet 6 wrestling champions, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem will present a live screening of the 2009 Inauguration Ceremony.

And there are over 400 other free programs and classes for adults listed. Flamenco, English Sword