The facade of the Peter White Public Library in Marquette. (Photo courtesy Travel Marquette)

This was a story from the Peter White Public Library originally written for Valentine’s Day, as hopefully these books can inspure you to take of you. Happy belated Valentine’s Day!

• “Offline Humans: How to Stop Scrolling and Reconnect with the Real World,” by Natalie Alzate.

This is a non-preachy, gentle yet practical guide on how to take breaks from the digital noise. The book is full of checklists and prompts to help you slow down, reflect and put real change into action.

The reader is guided through hourly, daily, weekly and monthly prompts to help make the process more gradual and less overwhelming. Sprinkled in are tips on staying mindful, letting go of old habits and introducing new ones to help nurture real-world connections.

• “Trust Your Gut: Anti-Inflammatory Recipes for Feeling Unstoppable,” by Jennifer Fisher.

The author, the founder of a successful jewelry company, details the anti-inflammatory approach to eating that has helped her with medical conditions, including Hashimoto’s disease.

The recipes give helpful ideas for substituting grains (riced cauliflower is very versatile), but nothing is overly complicated. This writer made the protein meatballs, which were quick, easy and quite good.

The book would be helpful to have on hand to inspire ideas for expanding your options for go-to meals.

• “Music Between Your Ears: How Musical Engagement Powers the Human Brain,” by Samuel Markind.

The author, a neurologist and self-described “student of piano and dance”, looks at the connections between brain function and music. Markind considers how music has played important roles in human evolution through both a scientific and creative lens.

From playing music for newborns in neo-natal intensive care units, to elderly dementia patients lighting up at familiar songs, to the documented benefits of music therapy, the argument is made that music greatly improves our quality of life. The final chapter provides some very practical examples of how to add more music to your life, regardless of skill level.

If this book piques your interest to try out an instrument, PWPL offers ukuleles and drums for checkout in the Library of Things.

• “Small Moves, Big Life: 7 Daily Practices to Supercharge Your Energy, Productivity, and Happiness (in Just Minutes a Day)” by Andrea Leigh Rogers.

The idea that we only need small time commitments to create big changes might seem unrealistic, but this book delivers some great ideas to enact change day to day.

About 30 minutes in the morning and 15 minutes in the evening can easily cover all seven practices outlined in the book — from breathwork to movement to mindfulness. It’s quite easy to spend 45 minutes a day doom scrolling — this book could be the key to changing some of those habits.

If so inspired, one can go beyond the morning routines using this book as a guide. The chapter on breathing has several practices depending on what you need — from calming the body after a stressful interaction to energizing yourself when it’s hard to get out of bed. The chapter on movement starts with just 10 minutes each day but offers ways to add more through the day.

Melissa Matuscak Alan is the head of the circulation department at the Peter White Public Library in Marquette.