May 2024 HistoryCAT: Middle Ages

Welcome to the May HistoryCAT! We are exploring the Middle Ages--roughly, 500-1400--this month. Please feel free to read either fiction or nonfiction. Here are some lists of books about this time period to give you some ideas:

12 Must-Read Titles in Medieval Historical Fiction
Medieval History (500-1400)
Good Books About the Middle Ages

The wiki awaits your book entries!

Hopefully I'll finish Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth in early May. I started it this month, but I've got other things I need to be reading also so my progress has been slow. It's 1000+ pages.

I've been thinking of re-reading The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco (14th century Italy).

Other possibilities are:
The Lions of the North by Edward Marston (England under William the Conqueror)
The Celebrated Cases of Judge Dee by Robert Van Gulik (Tang Dynasty China)

My goal is to finally read Shakespeare's Kings: The Great Plays and the History of England in the Middle Ages: 1337-1485 by John Norwich.

If I go with fiction, I can find lots of Ps to also fit the AlphaKIT: Jean Plaidy, Philippa Gregory... But we'll see.

I have lots of options for this topic, both fiction and nonfiction and also primary works. Right now I am planning on these:

Lieder (Mittelhochdeutsch/Neuhochdeutsch), a collection of songs by Neidhart von Reuenthal, a 13th century poet
The Romance of the Middle Ages by Nicholas Perkins, a book about medieval romances and how they influenced later writers

I'm looking to read Labyrinth by Kate Mosse for the SFFKit, and I saw it has also been tagged Middle Ages; it looks like there is a dual timeline with one taking place in 1209 and the other in 2005, so it looks like it will work here too.