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Mount Hood Oregon
J.N. Courtney

Children's Book Author

Jeanmarie Courtney Children's Book Author

Books I Enjoy

Books for Adults

An American in Scotland
James Patterson by James Patterson
Diet for the Mind
Simple Abundance
Joyful

  • An Amer­i­can in Scot­land: A Scot­tish Isle Mys­tery by Lucy Con­nel­ly. A clever and invit­ing mys­tery set in North­ern Scot­land. Warm and quirky char­ac­ters with well-paced plot. So enjoyed — can’t wait until the sec­ond in the series comes out in 2024. 

  • James Pat­ter­son by James Pat­ter­son: The Sto­ries of My Life by James Pat­ter­son. Fun­ny with won­der­ful sto­ries, and I real­ly appre­ci­at­ed his shar­ing how out­lines make a dif­fer­ence in his writ­ing, and how he advo­cates for chil­dren’s literacy.

  • Diet for the Mind: The Lat­est Sci­ence on What to Eat to Pre­vent Alzheimer’s and Cog­ni­tive Decline by Dr. Martha Clare Mor­ris. Pro­pos­es new diet com­bin­ing the Dash and Mediter­ranean Diets based on sci­en­tif­ic research. I like the sug­ges­tions for dai­ly and week­ly food recommendations.

  • Sim­ple Abun­dance: A Day­book of Com­fort and Joy by Sarah Ban Breath­nach. Full of ideas for under­stand­ing self and oth­ers, and liv­ing a full joy-filled life …

  • Joy­ful: The Sur­pris­ing Pow­er of Ordi­nary Things to Cre­ate Extra­or­di­nary Hap­pi­ness by Ingrid Fetell Lee. High­ly inspi­ra­tional! Cre­ative­ly explores the pow­er of sen­so­ry input in our envi­ron­ment and our lives. 

Atomic Habits James Clear
Fast Asleep Dr Michael Mosley
How to Lead David M. Rubenstein
Only Time Will Tell Jeffrey Archer
Miss Morgan's Book Brigade
  • Atom­ic Habits: An Easy and Proven Way to Build Good Habits and Break Bad Ones by James Clear. Book clar­i­fies the habit-build­ing process, a won­der­ful ref­er­ence when you feel stuck in adapt­ing a new habit. 
  • Fast Asleep: Improve Brain Func­tion, Lose Weight, Boost Your Mood, Become a Bet­ter Sleep­er by Dr. Michael Mosley. Full of recent research with ready-to-try strategies.
  • How To Lead: Wis­dom from the World’s Great­est CEOs, Founders, and Game Chang­ers  by David M. Ruben­stein. Inspir­ing from the first page!
  • The Clifton Chron­i­cles by Jef­fery Archer. Sev­en-book adult series, an “I can’t put it down series.” Be wary if you have back issues. 

  • Miss Mor­gan’s Book Brigade by Janet Skeslien Charles. A com­pelling, grip­ping and com­pas­sion­ate sto­ry about the Amer­i­can women who helped the French peo­ple, dur­ing and after WWI. The book shares Jesse Car­son­’s true sto­ry about bring­ing her love of books and libraries to the peo­ple of France. Her work and that of oth­er librar­i­ans had a sig­nif­i­cant impact on the French library sys­tem. Sto­ry time for chil­dren, the avail­abil­i­ty of books for all, and the new oppor­tu­ni­ty for women to become librar­i­ans were some of the results of their vol­un­teer efforts

Children’s Books

What Feelings Do When No One's Looking
Mad for Math an Ocean of Calculations
Africa is Not a Country
The Magic Faraway Tree The Enchanted Wood
Daughter of the Deep
  • What Feel­ings Do When No One’s Look­ing by Tina Oziewicz, illus­trat­ed by Alek­san­dra Zajac, trans­lat­ed into Eng­lish (from Pol­ish) by Jen­nifer Croft. Heart­warm­ing and unique illus­tra­tions, and thought­ful ideas about emo­tions relat­able by all ages.
  • Mad for Math: An Ocean of Cal­cu­la­tions edit­ed by Tec­no­scien­za, illus­trat­ed by Agnese Baruzzi. Cre­ative, fun, and chal­leng­ing with imag­i­na­tive illus­tra­tions. A math work­book for ages 7–9.
  • Africa is Not a Coun­try by Mar­gy Burns Knight and Mark Mel­ni­cove. Beau­ti­ful­ly writ­ten about how chil­dren in dif­fer­ent coun­tries in the con­ti­nent of Africa begin and end their day.

  • The Mag­ic Far­away Tree: The Enchant­ed Wood by Enid Bly­ton. Imag­i­na­tive, cre­ative, and fun. I know a sev­en-year-old who has cho­sen it as a favorite book.

  • Daugh­ter of the Deep by Rick Rior­dan. I love this book! High­ly cre­ative under­wa­ter adven­ture with fas­ci­nat­ing inter­na­tion­al and var­ied char­ac­ters with their dif­fer­ences and sen­si­tiv­i­ties (one char­ac­ter is on the autism spectrum). 

Dog Songs Poems Mary Oliver
Wing & Claw
No Frogs in School A Lafaye Eglantine Ceulemans
Thesaurus Has a Secret by Anya Glazer
Madeline Finn and the Therapy Dog Lisa Papp

  • Dog Songs: Poems by Mary Oliv­er. Beau­ti­ful and thought­ful col­lec­tion of poems. 

  • Wing & Claw, a three-book chil­dren’s series by Lin­da Sue Park. Thought­ful, cre­ative, and inspir­ing book.

  • No Frogs in School, by A. LaFaye, illus­trat­ed by Églan­tine Ceule­mans. A col­or­ful, play­ful book about a boy and his love of animals.

  • The­saurus Has a Secret by Anya Glaz­er. About the chal­lenges of hav­ing a secret hob­by and its won­der­ful dis­cov­ery by oth­ers. Fun and sur­pris­ing with cre­ative dinosaur illustrations. 

  • Made­line Finn and the Ther­a­py Dog by Lisa Papp. About shar­ing, the joy of respon­si­bil­i­ty and help­ing others.

The Most Beautiful Thing Kao Kalia Yang Khoa Le
Khalil and Mr. Hagerty and the Backyard Treasures Tricia Springstubb
Abe Lincoln Crosses a Creek A Tall Thin Tale Deborah Hopkinson John Hendrix
A Little Space for Me Jennifer Gray Olson
A Teen's Guide to the 5 Love Languages

  • The Most Beau­ti­ful Thing by Kao Kalia Yang, illus­trat­ed by Khoa Le. Heart­warm­ing and inspi­ra­tional sto­ry of car­ing for and appre­ci­at­ing oth­ers despite hard­ship, through love and under­stand­ing. Sto­ry draws from author’s expe­ri­ences as a Hmong refugee.

  • Khalil and Mr. Hager­ty and the Back­yard Trea­sures by Tri­cia Springstubb, illus­trat­ed by Ela­heh Taher­ian. An endear­ing sto­ry of two friends.

  • Abe Lin­coln Cross­es a Creek: A Tall Thin Tale by Deb­o­rah Hop­kin­son and John Hen­drix. A sto­ry of Abe Lin­col­n’s unsung hero and loy­al friend.

  • A Lit­tle Space for Me by Jen­nifer Gray Olson. Cre­ative and sen­si­tive book. 

  • A Teen’s Guide to the 5 Love Lan­guages  How to Under­stand Your­self and Improve All Your Rela­tion­ships  by Gary Chap­man. Well writ­ten and thought­ful book. Help­ful to teens and adults in improv­ing relationships. 

Happy Reading!