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Books about the Middle Ages that are great reads

Looking for a book to read about the medieval world? On this week’s episode of The Medieval Podcast Danièle offers her picks for which books about the Middle Ages you should read. It includes ones by Dan Jones, Helen Castor, Peter Frankopan and Ruth Mazo Karras, plus Danièle’s choices for primary sources and medieval fiction.

Here are the books that Danièle recommends:

The Plantagenets: The Warrior Kings and Queens Who Made England, by Dan Jones

She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth, by Helen Castor

A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain, by Marc Morris

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The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, by Peter Frankopan

Lady of the Forest: A Novel of Sherwood, by Jennifer Roberson

Desire Lines, by Elizabeth Kingston

The Apothecary Rose, by Candace Robb

Ysabel, by Guy Gavriel Kay

Beowulf, translation by Roy Liuzza

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, translation by Norman Davis

Le Morte Darthur, translation by Stephen H. A. Shepherd

The Book of the City of Ladies by Christine de Pizan, translation by Earl Jeffrey Richards

Avicenna’s Medicine, translation by Mones Abu-Asab, Hakima Amri and Marc S. Micozzi

The Good Wife’s Guide (Le Ménagier de Paris): A Medieval Household Book, translation by Gina L. Greco and Christine M. Rose

The Fabliaux, translation by Nathaniel E. Dubin

The Trotula: An English Translation of the Medieval Compendium of Women’s Medicine, by Monica H. Green

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Sexuality in Medieval Europe: Doing Unto Others, by Ruth Mazo Karras

Urban Bodies: Communal Health in Late Medieval English Towns and Cities, by Carole Rawcliffe

Fighting Techniques of the Medieval World: Equipment, Combat Skills and Tactics, by Matthew Bennett, Jim Bradbury, Kelly DeVries, Iain Dickie and Phyllis Jestice

Medieval Life: Archaeology and the Life Course, by Roberta Gilchrist

See also the TEAMS Middle English text series and University of Toronto’s Reading in Medieval Civilizations and Cultures series

Peter recommends these books:

Romance of the Three Kingdoms, by Luo Guanzhong

Mission to Asia, by Christopher Dawson

Trickster Travels: A Sixteenth-Century Muslim Between Worlds, by Dr. Natalie Zemon Davis

A Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities: Strange Tales and Surprising Facts from History’s Most Orthodox Empire, by Anthony Kaldellis

The Murder of Charles the Good, by Galbert of Bruges and James Bruce Ross

You can subscribe to The Medieval Podcast via iTunes or our RSS feed – click here to listen to more episodes

The host of The Medieval Podcast is Danièle Cybulskie. Click here to visit her website or follow her on Twitter @5MinMedievalist

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You can pre-order her book Life in Medieval Europe: Fact and Fiction through Amazon.com

You can help support this podcast and Medievalists.net on Patreon – go to https://www.patreon.com/medievalists

Top Image: Photo by Christian Siedler / Flickr

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