I'll be posting here less and not accepting review requests going forward

As you may have noticed, there hasn’t been much activity on my blog in recent months. I’ve been doing several hardcore research trips to Europe the past few years that have required an intense amount of research. As a result, the number of fiction books I’ve been reading has been drastically reduced. I’m mostly reading history and art books related to the regions and specific churches I’m travelling to see.

I’ve been reluctant to accept review requests as a result. I’ve still taken on a few books, mostly continuations of series I enjoy. As I get older my reading tastes have shifted somewhat and I’ve become a lot more picky and critical about what I read. I stop earlier if I’m not enjoying a book.

I’ve been thinking about this for several weeks now. While I’m not going to close this blog, I won’t be updating it with new content very often. I still have one review I accepted for a book coming out in April (Saint Death’s Herald) that I will post, and I’ll probably continue to post the occasional history book review here. But don’t expect regular content here for the foreseeable future.

In the meantime, I occasionally post about medieval history and book reviews I’ve written on Bluesky, where you can find me as jstrider66 (@jstrider66.bsky.social).

Book Review: Medieval Cats: Claws, Paws, and Kitties of Yore by Professor Catherine Nappington

This is a cute adult picture book that showcases images of cats from medieval and later manuscripts. It’s organized into 10 chapters plus an introduction. There are a lot of great colour images of rather bizarre looking cats and mice (medieval artists weren’t always skilled at depicting their subject matter). Between pictures there are humorous modern comments on the photos, quotes from various ages (mostly medieval), and cat facts.

Some of the comments use terms that are out of style in medieval circles, like ‘dark ages’ or are inaccurate, like calling the middle ages ‘prudish’ (fabliaux anyone?).

I learned some new things and discovered some sources and manuscripts I’d like to learn more about.

If you know a cat lover, it’s an entertaining book and fairly quick to flip through.