Im Mittelalter [In the Middle Ages]

I’ll admit: I approached *Im Mittelalter* expecting another solemn march through castles and cathedrals. Instead, Mortimer ambushed me with a medieval world that’s *loud*—full of farts in church (yes, really), love potions gone wrong, and peasants outsmarting their betters. The book’s structure is brilliant: each chapter tackles a slice of daily life (sex, humor, travel) through vivid vignettes, then zooms out to connect them to bigger social forces. It’s like *Monty Python’s Middle Ages*, if Python had footnotes. Grimm’s narration sells this perfectly; his voice has the warmth of a storyteller by a fire, but with a scholar’s precision. When he delivers a bawdy joke from Chaucer’s era, you *hear* the wink. That said, the audiobook isn’t flawless. Mortimer’s tangents—while fascinating—can meander. A 20-minute deep dive into medieval table manners (spoons were *scandalous*) tests even Grimm’s pacing, and the lack of chapter markers for subtopics makes revisiting specific sections a chore. The production is otherwise impeccable, though I’d kill for a PDF companion with the book’s illustrations (some jokes land better with visuals). Still, these are quibbles. What lingers is how Mortimer and Grimm make the Middle Ages feel *present*—not a distant era, but a mirror held up to our own absurdities. If you’ve ever wondered how a medieval person would roast your TikTok habit, this is your audiobook.