BUY SOME BOOKS! (anti-Prime Sale)
Support independent bookstores and get you some reading material
Modern Medieval
by David M. Perry and Matthew Gabriele
As you may know, this is Prime Week from Amazon. But our amazing, wonderful friends at Bookshop.org have organized an “Anti-Prime Sale.” They’re offering free shipping and some deep discounts on great books, plus you GET TO SUPPORT INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORES.
So, to that end, we thought we’d offer some suggestions of what you might want to get - what we’ve been reading (and loving) lately. So, without further ado:
Our books
Yes, our books are on deep discount!
Oathbreakers is 78% off for the ebook - only $6.99 (and hardcover is 10% off).
The Bright Ages is only $15.99 for the ebook, while the paperback is also a steal (10% off) at $18.59.
Matt’s Suggestions
I tend to read a lot of fiction, but also history stuff that’s not medieval. From the last month or so:
Leif Enger, I Cheerfully Refuse
If you only read 1 novel about a bass player in a vaguely post-apocalyptic Minnesota who sets off on Lake Superior to find the ghost of his dead wife because of a book she loved, read this novel.
I f-ing love everything Arkady writes. This is a short novella about AI, architecture, and murder. It’s so good.
This book changed my life. No joke. I can’t stop thinking about it. It’s about a bookstore that’s haunted by its most annoying customer. But also in the background are covid, the George Floyd uprising, and indigenous politics.
Alvaro Enrigue, You Dreamed of Empires
Trippy retelling of Cortes’ conquest of the Aztecs in the early 16th century. Kind of like a Tarantino movie, but actually good. (sorry, not sorry)
David’s Suggestions
Kevin McClure, The Caring University
The modern American university as we know it relied on, among other things, stable streams of funding from the federal government. Those days are over, it seems, and I’m reading widely trying to find smart people with ideas about what might come next. McClure has outlined specific institutional changes that might reshape our working conditions in real ways.
Willa Hammit Brown, Gentlemen of the Woods: Manhood, Myth, and the American Lumberjack
I met Willa through Matt, but then she helpfully moved to the Twin Cities, introduced me to her dog and husband (in that order), and wrote a book HIGHLY RELEVANT to my new project on the history of patriarchy. It combines labor history (who these guys were, what their work was like, etc.) and cultural history (ideas about masculinity, lumberjack legends, etc.) in a brilliant way.
Upcoming history reads:
Amy Farrell, Intrepid Girls:The Complicated History of the Girl Scouts of the USA
D. Vance Smith, Atlas's Bones: The African Foundations of Europe
Happy reading!
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