The Light Ages

An interesting, but sometimes heavy going, read that illuminates an underappreciated area of history. There's a heavy focus on medieval astronomy, which was surprisingly central to life in those times. This dominates the book a little too much to my taste, at the expense of some of the fascinating monastic history, which I could happily have read much more about.
Even in a period often dismissed as ignorant and brutish, the scope of human ingenuity and inquisitiveness impresses.