May 2014 Media Thread

ArisKatsaris

This is the monthly thread for posting media of various types that you've found that you enjoy. Post what you're reading, listening to, watching, and your opinion of it. Post recommendations to blogs. Post whatever media you feel like discussing! To see previous recommendations, check out the older threads.

Rules:

Please avoid downvoting recommendations just because you don't personally like the recommended material; remember that liking is a two-place word. If you can point out a specific flaw in a person's recommendation, consider posting a comment to that effect.
If you want to post something that (you know) has been recommended before, but have another recommendation to add, please link to the original, so that the reader has both recommendations.
Please use the comment trees for genres. There is a meta thread for comments about future threads.
If you think there should be a thread for a particular genre of media, please post it to the Other Media thread for now, and add a poll to the Meta thread asking if it should be a thread every month.

Rules:

Please avoid downvoting recommendations just because you don't personally like the recommended material; remember that liking is a two-place word. If you can point out a specific flaw in a person's recommendation, consider posting a comment to that effect.
If you want to post something that (you know) has been recommended before, but have another recommendation to add, please link to the original, so that the reader has both recommendations.
Please use the comment trees for genres. There is a meta thread for comments about future threads.
If you think there should be a thread for a particular genre of media, please post it to the Other Media thread for now, and add a poll to the Meta thread asking if it should be a thread every month.

I'm going through The Pillars of the Earth and quite enjoying myself. I expected something a little on the romantic side with a chance of dullness now and then from Follett being unable to control his "show off my research" that affects many authors of his class (like Crichton). However, the book is entertaining, the characters far more interesting than I expected, and his presentation of medieval thought life is very sympathetic without being romantic. These people think. Some well, some poorly. It is quite good.

A couple of memories from The Pillars of the Earth-- it was a surprise to me that most of the misery was caused by social disorder rather than too much authority, though it did show the rise of Catholic power to affect daily life, and it had rather a lot (interesting for me, at least) about how the Catholic church managed to exist as a large institution at such a low tech level.