Shelf Share Thursday

Well I am posting this a bit late on Thursday so I guess this week it will be Shelf Share Thursday/Friday :) Shelf Share Thursday is the place to give a little love to the books that have been lingering on your shelf for awhile. Maybe you'll find a book you should push to the front of the line or maybe you'll find one that would be better off finding a new home at a FOL sale (it is the season for those after all). Feel free to share your shelf to via Mr. Linky at the bottom of the post. This week's letter is H.

is for....

Hawaii by James Michener

From Amazon:

"The saga of a land from the time when the volcanic islands rose out of the sea to the decade in which they become the 50th state. Michener uses individuals' experiences to symbolize the struggle of the various races to establish themselves in the islands."

This book comes highly recommended by several people and I have 3 more Michener novels besides this one waiting on my shelf. All of his books are just so huge though! I'm actually thinking of saving this one until another brutal Michigan winter rolls around and then I can warm up by reading about Hawaii :)

H is also for....

Here be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman

From Amazon:

"Thirteenth-century Wales is a divided country, ever at the mercy of England’s ruthless, power-hungry King John. Llewelyn, Prince of North Wales, secures an uneasy truce by marrying the English king’s beloved illegitimate daughter, Joanna, who slowly grows to love her charismatic and courageous husband. But as John’s attentions turn again and again to subduing Wales---and Llewelyn---Joanna must decide where her love and loyalties truly lie."

I don't know how I can rightly call myself a devotee of historical fiction having never read a novel by Sharon Kay Penman. I fear I will be relegated to novice status in the historical fiction community until I get this accomplished. I've had this one long enough where I don't remember where I got it from :(

And finally H is for.....

The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper

From Amazon:

"Journalist Cooper has a compelling story to tell: born into a wealthy, powerful, dynastic Liberian family descended from freed American slaves, she came of age in the 1980s when her homeland slipped into civil war. On Cooper's 14th birthday, her mother gives her a diamond pendant and sends her to school. Cooper is convinced that somehow our world would right itself. That afternoon her uncle Cecil, the minister of foreign affairs, is executed. Cooper combines deeply personal and wide-ranging political strands in her memoir. There's the halcyon early childhood in Africa, a history of the early settlement of Liberia, an account of the violent, troubled years as several regimes are overthrown, and the story of the family's exile to America."

I do remember where I spotted this one-while waiting for my daily dose of caffeine at Starbucks. I read the occasional memoir and these are the types I am drawn to (although I've surprisingly been tempted to read a few celebrity memoirs lately). I fear unless someone tells me this is an insanely awesome book I'll have to wait on it awhile. I've got many ahead of it right now.

Thats it for this week. So- What's on your shelf?