My wife is a lover of all things Medieval period. She has lately begun to read more and more about daily life during these times. I'm curious if there is recommended, almost baseline, reading that somebody can recommend. So far she's read: 1) The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England; and 2) Life in a Medieval Castle. She far preferred the first one. Any ideas on what might be a good next step? Perhaps even moving to a different geography during the same period? Her birthday is coming up and I'm thinking about her getting a set of books (in addition to flowers and something more traditionally romantic!).
EDIT: I should've mentioned, I've been through the recc'd reading list in the sidebar. However, some of those feel quite academic and, dare I say, not as enjoyable for the casual historian (if you'll allow me that term).
For the casual reader, I very highly recommend Andrea Hopkins' "Knights". It is very entertaining, educational, and full of wonderful ilustrations.
EDIT: Georges Duby's "William Marshal: The Flower of Chivalry" is slightly more serious stuff, but surpriisingly entertaining.
Also, since it's already been established that she likes Frances Gies, I would recommend "The Knight in History", by that same author.
A word of warning as well: stay well away from anything written by William Manchester.
Marc Morris is producing some good popular history and seems to be gripping the zeitgeist fairly firmly - his books on Magna Carta (2015) and Edward I (2008) fall well within his academic research period so I can recommend them fairly easily, his book on the Norman Conquest (2012) I'm less sure of but is probably suitable.
Also, for a grand examination of Britain (although rather heavily focused on England) there's David Carpenter's The Struggle for Mastery (2004) which covers the period 1066-1284. Along similar lines is Sir Rees Davies's (published as R.R. Davies) Age of Conquest (2000) is more thematic in layout but more engagingly written.
Not exclusively related to England but David Green's The Hundred Years War: A People's History is definitely worth a look. It's not a traditional narrative of the Hundred Years War, instead Green gets most of the War stuff out of the way in the introduction and spends the rest of the book talking about how the war affected society in general by looking at how social structures and society reacted to it. He's really easy to read and it's well worth a look.
If you think she'd be game for something more dry (but also more rigorous with an argument) there's The Ties That Bound by Barbara Hanawalt. It's about peasant families in medieval England.
I'm a casual historian! Casual historians represent! Etc etc. I too am interested in Medieval daily life. Also, only July 28th, there's an AMA with an expert on 14th century life who would probably be able to recommend some great books!
Okay, Life in a Medieval Village, by Gies. It's readable but detailed. Perfect for beginners like me. Growing Up in the Middle Ages by Newman. The Ties that Bound (Barbara Hanawalt), A Distant Mirror (Barbara Tuchman)- oh, and a Medieval Home Companion: Housekeeping in the Fourteenth Century. It is a contemporary source...and it is annoying and enjoyable in equal measure (annoying because it is written by an elderly man to advise his 15yr old wife).
1215, The Year of the Magna Carta(2003) by Danny Danziger (popular historian) & John (professional historian of England) is a short but wide-ranging survey of England at the beginning of the 13th century.
I also always recommend A Medieval Life: Cecilia Penifader of Brigstock, c. 1295-1344 by Judith Bennett. It's also short but still a very comprehensive account of English peasant life in the 14th century. It dispels a lot of misconceptions.
Both of these are aimed at non-professionals.
Another one: Nicholas Orme's Medieval Children (2001) is a really interesting history of childhood in England from the Anglo-Saxons to the 1500s. It's serious scholarship but very readable and loaded with pictures.
Two more occur to me. In light of the recent discovery of the bones of Richard III, there is the topical Michael Jones & Philippa Langley's, The King's Grave: The Discovery of Richard III's Lost Burial Place. Since Langley spearheaded the search for RIII, there's some special pleading here trying to exonerate him for the murder of the princes in the Tower, but the other side of the case (from Jones) is also on offer. In connection with this, it's fun to read Josephine Tey's short--and classic--mystery novel The Daughter of Time, wherein a bedridden detective tries to solve the murder of the princes. It's out of date in terms of scholarship (as it was even in 1951 when published), but it's a lot of fun and has some very interesting insights into the methodology of history and how it gets written.
Edit: missing word