Medieval Bookworm

In conjunction with my 2010 medieval reading challenge, A Tournament of Reading, I’ve come up with a list of books in each of the three categories that I recommend.  First, here’s my list of potential reads, at the King level of course:

• Mistress of the Art of Death, Ariana Franklin (historical fiction)
• The Making of the Middle Ages, R.W. Southern (history)
• The Needle in the Blood, Sarah Bower (historical fiction)
• The Knight and the Rose, Isolde Martyn (historical romance)
• Lady of the Roses, Sandra Worth (historical fiction)
• Cluny: In Search of God’s Lost Empire, Edward Mullins (history)
• The Book of Margery Kempe, Margery Kempe (medieval literature)
• English Society in the Later Middle Ages, Maurice Keen (history)
• The Mabinogion, unknown author (medieval literature)
• Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, unknown author (medieval literature)

And the many books that you could read:

History

• The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England by Ian Mortimer
• Blood and Roses by Helen Castor
• Eleanor of Aquitaine by Alison Weir
• Queen Isabella by Alison Weir
• The Perfect King: The Life of Edward I by Ian Mortimer
• The Making of the Middle Ages by R.W. Southern
• The First Crusade: A New History by Thomas Asbridge
• The Crusades by Jonathan Riley-Smith
• The Making of England to 1399 by C. Warren Hollister
• Chivalry by Maurice Keen
• English Society in the Later Middle Ages by Maurice Keen
• The Crusades by Hans Eberhard Mayer
• The Anglo-Saxons by James Campbell

Historical Fiction

• Authors

1. Elizabeth Chadwick
2. Sharon Kay Penman
3. Nicole Galland
4. Susan Higginbotham
5. Sandra Worth
6. Helen Hollick
7. Bernard Cornwell (Agincourt, Saxon Chronicles series, Grail Quest series, Arthurian series)

• Books

1. Kristin Lavransdatter by Sigrid Undset
2. Katherine by Anya Setton
3. Company of Liars by Karen Maitland
4. The Needle in the Blood by Sarah Bower
5. Mistress of the Art of Death by Ariana Franklin
6. The Pillars of the Earth and World Without End by Ken Follett
7. Flint by Margaret Redfern
8. Twilight of Avalon by Anna Elliott
9. Pope Joan by Donna Woolfolk Cross
10. The Founding by Cynthia Harrod-Eagles

Medieval Literature

• The romances of Chretien de Troyes
• The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer (and really anything else that Chaucer wrote or translated)
• Gawain and the Green Knight by Gawain-poet
• Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
• Beowulf
• The Mabinogion
• The Memoirs of Margery Kempe

If you have any suggestions, please leave them in the comments for others (and for me)!