Titles in bold are highly recommended. I've begun adding ISBN's to the books listed here. (If I think a book should be read, I should make it a little easier to find a copy, right?) Where two ISBN's are listed for one book, it means I read the book in hardcover (probably via a used book store). Usually the second of these is the ISBN for the paperback edition. See also, my full booklist.
John Guy, Tudor England. (Less recommended than the above, but not for being not as good. I would recommended for those specifically interested in the period, rather than its inhabitants.)
Alfred Habegger, My Wars Are Laid Away in Books: The Life of Emily Dickinson. (I skimmed the first few pages of this one. It might be a good book. Sooner or later I'll be able to say for certain.)
John Kelly, The Great Mortality: An Intimate History of the Black Death, the Most Devastating Plague of All Time.ISBN0060006935.
David Starkey, Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII.
Barbara Tuchman, A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century. ISBN0345349571. (A good book; worth reading, even if it is limited to a very small slice of history. Read my review at Amazon.com, titled "A Thourough Description of the 1300's.")
Retha Warnicke, The Rise and Fall of Anne Boleyn: Family Politics at the Court of Henry VIII. (The last third of the book pushes the limits of plausibility. I do accept the cultural basis of the theories Wernickie puts forward — which fourmed part of the cultural background for the Salem Witch Trials. I just don't see how her theories of Anne's downfall is the only probable outcome. That said, the early part of Anne Boleyn's life is obscure, and the first two thirds of this book seem plausible.)
These movies I thought were above averege enough to make a point of listing (which is why some classics and/or really popular movies don't show up here -- either I haven't seen them or I didn't think they were worth the hype). The ones in bold are the ones I think you should put some effort into seeing.
Desk Set, 1957. Directed by Walter Lang; starring Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy. → Hepburn runs the library at a telivision network, in which Tracey has been hired to add a computer — a premise which hasn't gotten old (or at least has become relavent again). Wit runs amok in this one.
The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928. Directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer; starring Maria Falconetti. Silent. → Hard to find, but a moving film and very "modern" in appearance. Einhorn's music (a more recent addition) adds to the movie, but can stand up well on its own, too.
Richard III, 1955. Directed by and starring Laurence Olivier. → This movie clocks in at over 2½ hours, and of course there was some limit on the available special effects when the film was made. That said, it's still a good film, with little of the Autopilot-Shakespearishness that one could easily expect from a 'classic Shakespeare movie'.
The list below contains various albums which I recommend. Again, the ones in bold are the short shorter list.
Altan, The Blue Idol. Shanachie, 2002. (Though a reasonably strong album with a number of good tracks, Local Ground is a stronger album when taken as a whole)
Battlefield Band, Threads. Temple Records, 1995. (Many of the tracks on this album also appear on their live album, Across the Borders; the band is great on stage, the guest mucicians make that album the better of the two. That said, this album is great in its own right.)
