While summer’s not quite yet over, school has started in many parts of the U.S., and so I thought I’d look back on some of my favorite summer reads. The biggest standout for me would have to be Maria Dahvana Headley’s new translation of Beowulf. Headley’s introduction alone is a brilliant essay that is worth the price of admission, but the actual translation of the epic poem is where this truly shines. Managing somehow both to make the poem seem fresh and new and also to evoke a convincingly true cleaving to the Beowulf poet’s original words and intent, this is an amazing feat of scholarship and wordcraft. Well worth your time if you’ve not yet had a chance to read it!
I was also extremely pleased with the thirteenth and final volume (War Lord) of Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Stories series, which I’ve been reading since the first book in the series was released roughly seventeen years ago. Cornwell is among my all-time favorite authors, and this summer, War Lord reminded me why. Now I can finally watch the Netflix series (The Last Kingdom) based on the books, which I had been holding off on watching until I’d finished reading the whole thing!
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