Shelf Share Thursday

Welcome to Shelf Share Thursday. This is the place to give a little love to those books that have been sitting on your shelf for awhile. Maybe you'll find a good one or maybe you'll find a few books that have a better use-like insulating your attic a little better. Each week I will post a letter of the alphabet and three books corresponding to that letter. Feel free to play along with me and share your shelf. Just use Mr. Linky at the bottom of the post :) This week's letter is J.

is for.........

Jewel of Medina by Sherry Jones

From Amazon:

"Born Aisha bint Abi Bakr in seventh century Arabia, she would become the favorite wife of the Prophet Muhammad, and one of the most revered women in the Muslim faith. Married at the age of nine, The Jewel of Medina illuminates the difficult path Aisha confronted, from her youthful dreams of becoming a Bedouin warrior, to her life as the beloved wife and confident of the founder of Islam."

I picked this up with my Christmas money in december of 2008. It was the source of a lot of controversy that year because the book was dropped by Random House when someone feared it would provoke the Muslim community and might result in violence. Beaufort books saved the day and published it in October of that year. I'm still interested in reading it and the sequel if this one is any good but as usual, I just haven't been able to fit it in.

J is also for...

Jane Boleyn: the True Story of the Infamous Lady Rochford by Julia Fox

From Amazon:

"In a life of extraordinary drama, Jane Boleyn was catapulted from relative obscurity to the inner circle of King Henry VIII. As powerful men and women around her became victims of Henry’s ruthless and absolute power–including her own husband and her sister-in-law, Queen Anne Boleyn–Jane’s allegiance to the volatile monarch was sustained and rewarded. But the cost of her loyalty would eventually be her undoing and the ruination of her name. For centuries, little beyond rumor and scandal has been associated with “the infamous Lady Rochford,” but now historian Julia Fox sets the record straight."

I just watched the episode of the Tudors last week in which Lady Rochford is executed and I have always felt a bit sorry for her. There aren't that many books out there about Lady Rochford and in most fiction works I have read she isn't portrayed in a favourable light. I'm hoping to get to this one soon, maybe for the Tudor Book Challenge or the Tudor Mania Challenge.

and finally J is for....

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair

From Barnes & Noble:

"Upton Sinclair’s muckraking masterpiece The Jungle centers on Jurgis Rudkus, a Lithuanian immigrant working in Chicago’s infamous Packingtown. Instead of finding the American Dream, Rudkus and his family inhabit a brutal, soul-crushing urban jungle dominated by greedy bosses, pitiless con-men, and corrupt politicians."

This book is on the 1,001 books to read before you die list which I do plan on conquering in my lifetime (I've read 33 so far, better get cracking...,). Also I grabbed it because it is set in Chicago, a city which I love. I do wish though, that I could find a book set in the Windy City where good things happened. The last one I read was Devil in the White City by Erik Larsen and half of that book was about a serial killer!

And that is it for this week. What's on your shelf?