Shelf Control is a weekly celebration of the unread books on our shelves created and hosted by Lisa @ Bookshelf Fantasies. Pick a book you own but haven’t read, write a post about it (suggestions: include what it’s about, why you want to read it, and when you got it), and link up! For more info on what Shelf Control is all about, check out Lisa’s introductory post, here.

The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England
by Ian Mortimer

The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there…

Imagine you could travel back to the fourteenth century. What would you see, and hear, and smell? Where would you stay? What are you going to eat? And how are you going to test to see if you are going down with the plague?

In The Time Traveller’s Guide Ian Mortimer’s radical new approach turns our entire understanding of history upside down. History is not just something to be studied; it is also something to be lived, whether that’s the life of a peasant or a lord. The result is perhaps the most astonishing history book you are ever likely to read; as revolutionary as it is informative, as entertaining as it is startling.

I’ve been having a lot of fun theming my Shelf Control posts – such as focusing on queer books during Pride Month and fantasy during Wyrd & Wonder – and as I’m taking part in the Medieval-A-Thon this month, I thought it’d be a fun chance to share some of the medieval books on my TBR! Some non-fiction, and some fiction set during this period of history.

I’ve owned my copy of The Time Traveller’s Guide to Medieval England for a while now after picking it up in a charity shop but, story of my life, I still haven’t read it. 2019 hasn’t really been a non-fiction year for me, though it’s a genre I’d love to get back into, and this is one I’m still determined to cross off my TBR one day! It sounds like the perfect introduction to the Middle Ages, focusing on the Average Joes of the day rather than the royals.

Do you enjoy reading about the Middle Ages? Are there any books on the medieval era you’d recommend?

I previously linked up to Lipsy @ Lipsyy Lost & Found‘s This Week in Books feature, but there haven’t been any new posts on Lipsy’s blog since December so I’m not sure where she is. I hope she’s alright and coming back soon!

Until then I thought I’d do my own Reading Right Now feature – nothing special, just a space for me to talk about what I’ve been reading in the past week because it’s something I enjoy doing!

Before

Despite not loving Red Sister as much as I hoped, I couldn’t get Lawrence’s characters out of my head so I decided to give the audiobook of Grey Sister a chance because I so wanted to enjoy a series about assassin nuns. Thankfully, I enjoyed this second book in the series so much more! If you’re interested in this series, I’d highly recommend the audiobooks narrated by Helen Duff.

Now

Penguin Random House reached out to me and sent me a copy of Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s latest novel, Gods of Jade and Shadow, which is due to be released later this month. I’m so excited to have a copy in my hands and I’m really enjoying it so far! It’s going to be my first read for the Medieval-A-Thon, and I’m hoping to enjoy the rest as much as I’ve enjoyed the opening chapters. I need to read more Latinx authors!

Next

Penguin Random House Ireland also very kindly sent me a review copy of Niamh Boyce’s Her Kind which I requested after seeing an interview with the author in the Irish Times. I haven’t got to it yet because I’ve been priorisiting books for various readathons and challenges, but this one’s also on my Medieval-A-Thon TBR and I’m planning to get to it next. Fittingly, it’s set in medieval Ireland!

What have you been reading recently?