I know many people are making good use of their increased time at home by decluttering, cooking more and spending time with family and pets. Are you looking for inspiration? I can help with some new nonfiction books.

If you are working on sorting through your closet, “Project 333: The Minimalist Fashion Challenge That Proves Less Really is So Much More” by Courtney Carver (391 Carver), will help you make a plan for paring down your wardrobe. The idea is to wear only 33 items for three months. This includes clothing, accessories, jewelry, and shoes! If you are really serious about minimizing your closet, this is the book for you.

Spending more time at home probably means cooking a lot more than usual. We have many cookbooks just waiting for you at the library, but I want to highlight a couple of tried and true cookbooks that have had updates recently. “Joy of Cooking” (641.5 Rombaue) has been a trusted source of all things cooking for generations. The most recent edition contains 600 new recipes and more than 4,000 favorites revised and updated. Also completely revised for its 20th Anniversary is “How to Cook Everything: Simple Recipes for Great Food” (641.5 Bittman) by Mark Bittman. He has included original favorites, new recipes, updated information and beautiful photography.

Could your puppy use a little work on their manners? “Play Your Way to Good Manners” (636.7083 Naito), written by Kate Naito, might be just the book you need. It promises “Getting the Best Behavior from Your Dog through Sports, Games, and Tricks. It looks really fun!

And last, but not least, a little levity may be in order during these unpredictable times. If you have kids, you should pick up “Love Poems (For People with Children)” (811.6 Kenney). Even if your children are all grown up, it will make you laugh. I also enjoyed “What I lick before your face and other haikus by dogs.” These are thoughts our dogs would tell us if they could only talk!

New Ulm Public Library is now offering contactless pickup of holds, so go ahead and place holds on the aforementioned books (or any other titles you are interested in), and we will get them ready for you to pick up. Reminder: Once you receive notice that your items are ready for pickup, you will need to give us a call and set up an appointment to come and get them. We are scheduling appointments every fifteen minutes to ensure proper social distancing.

“No matter how chaotic it is, wildflowers will still spring up in the middle of nowhere.” Sheryl Crow