Medieval Challenge Wrap-Up

At last, I have finished this challenge. The official end date was February 8, 2009. I think that I had only read three of my books by then. Which I think qualified for a lower level of the challenge, but not the six books I had signed up to read. The goal of the challenge was to read books related to the Medieval time period. These could be historical fiction set in that time period, non-fiction about the time, or books actually written in the middle ages. I chose to do two books from each category.
For the historical fiction books I read:

• Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks - I enjoyed this one, although not as much as I enjoyed Brooks' other books.
  
• The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett - I liked this book a lot more than I thought I would. I've recommended it to several people since reading it.

For the non-fiction I read:

• Medieval Britain: The Age of Chivalry by Lloyd and Jennifer Laing - not necessarily recommended, but a good way to learn more about the time period.
  
• Women in Early Medieval Europe 400-1100 by Lisa M Bitel - very highly recommended text on the roles and perceptions of women during early medieval times.

And the texts actually written during medieval times:

• Le Morte D'Arthur by Sir Thomas Mallory - boy, was this book hard to read; I would recommend not reading the full Middle English version and instead going for a Modern English translation.
• The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer - I read a Modern English prose version of this, translated by David Wright. Very highly recommended.

Participating in a challenge that covers a specific time period is a great way to learn more about the time. Reading from the non-fiction and the fiction, as well as reading books written during that time really gave me some new ideas, and a greater understanding of the medieval time period.