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14 | Four Seasons Hemet Herald | January 2017 | Are we really welcoming you to the year 2017? We encourage you to glance at the picture on the wall by the return table on how our library used to be. Now stand back and look at what you created. This is my favorite time of year. You either received a new book or bought one yourself. When you finish reading it bring it to our library. We must mention how beautiful the Christmas decorations looked this year. Thank you to the new team and her band of elves! The library was awesome. We had a wonderful response for volunteering to join our team. We received three applications and, hopefully, all three will become part of our team. There certainly is enough to keep all of us busy! For our newcomers, we welcome you to the Four Seasons community library. Our residents keep us up to date with new and older fiction hardbound books. Our non- fiction section is filled with biographies and a broad range of interesting topics. Our lower shelves contain travel books, health books and a spiritual section. We do not accept technical books and actually the downtown library doesn't accept them either. Our magazine rack holds three months of donated material. As of this writing please bring November, December and January magazines for us to display. After reading them, please be sure to return them for others to read. Our National Geographics are considered timeless. Bring all years to be displayed. We have had a full magazine rack lately. Thank you. The library committee had to make a decision on the dates of the paperback books accepted. We accept 2011-2016. At times we can hardly fit another book in there and the next day it is so empty looking. The chosen years do work and I cannot wait for new 2016's to be donated! I must mention the over-sized paperback books again. It feels like the authors are having a contest to see who can print the largest book. It is very difficult to display all of them at one time. We are in the process of displaying them on a rotation basis. Our audio CD selection has truly grown. Thank you for sharing. You will find them on the bottom left cabinet. They are perfect for RV trips! Do look through them if it has been some time since you checked them out. Our children's movies were taken and not returned. There are a few there so do take a look. You will find them on the right side in the bottom cabinet. We could always use newer audio CDs and some newer children's movies. The library committee is comprised of residents who enjoy reading and have a desire to keep our 55+library in order. We all enjoy working there and ask that you please let us do our job. Please don't put your books away, let us do our job! The library committee wishes Four Seasons a healthy, happy New Year filled with peace and quiet time to allow you time to read often! Book report by Kay Masonbrink: For those interested in acquiring Black history knowledge prior to February's observance, you might want to read an interesting book, Mrs. Lincoln's Dressmaker by Jennifer Chiaverini (Penguin Group, 2013). In our library this novel is in the oversized paperback section. The novel begins in the 1860's with the heroine, Elizabeth Keckley, a real woman born a slave, who because of her sewing skills, saved up enough money to buy her freedom. Being industrious with entrepreneurial spirit, she set up a dressmaking business in Washington, D.C. and found the political elite as her clientele, including the new First Lady, Mary Todd Lincoln. Mrs. Keckley became her "personal modiste" as well as the family confidant and was highly loyal to the unstable and emotional Mrs. Lincoln. What I especially enjoyed was how the story wound around the everyday lives of the people (including former slaves), White House policies, Civil War events, facts about Lincoln the man, as well as Elizabeth Keckley's incredible story. If you are interested in Black or Civil War history, President Lincoln or just historical fiction, you will like this book. Library Committee Landscape Committee Artistic Maintenance Inc. have now provided landscape services to Hemet Four Seasons for a full year and we commend them on their quality of work. In December we asked Artistic to pay special attention to the seasonal color planting at the Lodge and Entrance Gates for the enjoyment of residents and their guests during the holidays. We weren't disappointed, they did a fine job. Due to the ongoing drought situation an incentive was offered by EMWD to eliminate non-functional grass in our community. We removed the grass from around the solar panels and an unused area to the south west of the Lodge Plaza. It has been replaced with drought resistant plants totally funded by the EMWD rebate. The plants will not only look attractive and help mask the view of the solar panels but save considerably on water usage. With another magical holiday season behind us we are looking forward to the upcoming year when we will continue with our plans to improve and maintain the appearance of the Common Areas and Legends landscaping. Members of the Landscape Committee wish you all a Happy and Healthy New Year.