I've been watching the show Vikings and am interested to learn more of the real history behind the show. Norse history is (obviously) outside my area of expertise, so I'm not sure which authors I ought to select. I'm wanting to avoid sensational accounts and common misinformation (my impression is that is a problem among Viking books). Are Jesch and Brown well-regarded scholars?
Jesch has published many excellent academic books as well as articles, so she is one of the most renown scholar in the field of Viking study. Her book you mentioned is in fact one of the two/three classics on the women during the Viking Age (Another one is/two are written by Jenny Jochens). I'd also recommend Jesch's latest book, Viking Diaspora (2015), as a good overview of the Vikings, focusing on their society and world view, though the lack of the map is a possible drawback.
On the other hand, I've never remembered the name of (Noah) Brown in academic articles as well as books on the Vikings.
[Added]: If you're interested in the Vikings, I can also suggest the following (lengthy and brief respectively) new works written by the specialists as decent overview of their activities:
You may be interested in this answer about the sons of Ragnar by /u/sagathain:
and also the section of the FAQ about the Vikings show:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/historically_accurate#wiki_...is_the_history_channel.27s.22vikings.22.3F