Kokipy wrote:

Jackalgirl, interesting about Hastings and the tapestry. I bought a few books on the topic when we visited Normandy a couple of years ago- so interesting! I am going to look for the Tetlow. I am still working on one called The Bayeau Tapestry by Carola  Hicks, which is more a history of it and how it has been viewed over the centuries than a discussion of its historical accuracy, although I recollect that Hicks agrees with the propaganda label. And that’s pretty interesting too- an astonishing piece of propaganda art
One of the other books I bought was 1066: The Year of Three Battles, by Frank McLynn, which I thought was just terrific. He told the story by focusing on the three battle leaders- William, of course, Harold, and Harald- the Viking who attacked Harold up near York just before the battle of Hastings. That battle, which Harold won, probably doomed him at Hastings because although he won, his troops were decimated and he had to rush back to Hastings from the north of England to meet the invaders.  A very readable book, and also very erudite and scholarly. In case you have more appetite for these topics once you are done with your own choices  

Thank you for the suggestions -- I'm definitely adding these to the (ever-expanding) list! : )
 

Yes, Aja- I used that page as well as another one I found, but that one works well.

Jackalgirl wrote:

I've been reading (or trying to; the brain weasels keep getting distracted by all the shiny things in the world) historical things.  I read Tetlow's The Enigma of Hastings, which was pretty intriguing -- talking about the history leading up to the Battle of Hastings that the author feels lead to the outcome, and about the Bayeux Tapestry as propaganda (magnificent work of art, but its accuracy as a source of information about what happened should be taken with a grain of salt).  The book was written in 1974, so Tetlow briefly advances some pretty outdated thinking regarding homosexuality (he's talking about Edward the Confessor), but other than reading that and thinking, "well, we've come quite a way from that," I thought the book was solid.

I'm trying to get through "Complete Old English (Anglo-Saxon)", but it's a Kindle edition, and I'm thinking that at some point I'm going to need to buy the actual physical copy of it -- when it comes to language learning, I work a lot better when I have something physical I can flip through, and flip back and forth through (especially helpful for memorization).

And when I do get back to non-fiction, my tasker is to go through the full Foreigner series and work on collecting place names and locations for the maps I've been working on (minus "Divergence", which is done, though I want to try to do another version of it in a more painterly style).  I think it would be a handy thing, if non-official, to have maps for the books that don't have them.  Other than that, I have a huge HUGE list of things waiting to be read (Megan Starks' "House of Ash and Brimstone", Rivers Solomon's "The Deep", Brandon Dixon's "The Chronicles of Tikor", Nnedi Okorafor's "Binti" series, among some of them).

I have not yet dipped my toes into the Alliance-Union books. I want to, but at this point, I need another obsession like I need a hole in the head. ; )

Another Hastings/William/Harald fan here! I had no idea there were so many of us in the vicinity!
 

Aja Jin wrote:

starexplorer wrote:

Jackalgirl wrote:

I have not yet dipped my toes into the Alliance-Union books. I want to, but at this point, I need another obsession like I need a hole in the head. ; )

No, you need this particular obsession way more than that! 
Hint: Cyteen is CJC’s very best book IMHO, and one of the true classics of the genre

If Cyteen is the Foreigner A/U book, then Downbelow Station is the Chanur book.  Both outstanding but rather different.  

Completely agree. Downbelow was my first ever Cherryh read, and I vividly remember two or three pages into the prologue recognizing with excitement that I was in the hands of an author i could trust, one in compete control. That book began my 🍒 odyssey 

Morgaine was my first Cherryh series.  I would love for her to revisit it.