Explain what monasteries were and how they were important to people in either the century before the Norman Conquest or the twelfth century.

M.D. Knowles, The Monastic Order in England (2nd edn.) is the classic account, and his The Religious Orders in England (2 vols.) take the story on from 1216. He writes very well, partly because he takes his time; unfortunately this makes his books too long for most student use. Try his Saints and Scholars (1963) for a selection of representative portraits.

R. Graham has a good brief sketch in G. Barraclough (ed.), Social Life in Early England.
J.E. Burton, Monastic and Religious Orders in Britain, 1000-1300 (1994) is a good recent synthesis with references to earlier literature; cap. 5 is on "Women and the Religious Life".
J.C. Dickenson, Monastic Life in Medieval England (1962) and R. Midmer, English Medieval Monasteries (1979) are other recommendations.

On the "Tenth Century Reformation" or "Benedictine Revival" [Note how loaded each label is], the traditional piouis account has been given a political and economic spin over the last generation. Much of the responsibility for this belongs to Eric John, whose own accounts are not easy to read; in his book Orbis Britanniae (1966), try pp. 154-80, 249-64. If you can handle that, move on to John's Reassessing Anglo-Saxon England (1997), caps. 6-7. Otherwise look for a recent general history, such as P. Stafford, Unification and Conquest: A Political & Social History of England in the 10th and 11th Centuries (1989) and read the relevant chapter(s) (Stafford, cap. 11) in that.
Virtually the whole of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, transl. S.A.J. Bradley (1982) (including the Onion riddle) comes from monastic manuscripts; there are of course many other usable translations of various selections of poems.

R.C. Finucane, Miracles and Pilgrims is very interesting on monastic shrines and relics.
A. Gransden, Historical Writing in England, 100-1500 tells much of monastic chronicle-writing.
H. Leyser, Medieval Women: A Social History of Women in England 450-1500 (1995), cap. 9 gives a good short account of "Female Monasticism" in the high middle ages.

"The Rule of St. Benedict" is one of the great formative documents of Western Civilization. Commentary in Knowles, Monastic Order, cap. 1 and R.W. Southern, Western Society and the Church in the Middle Ages, cap. 6, but it is not too long to read in one of the many translations.

Anyone writing on the century before 1066 ought to read at least the proem to Regularis Concordia, ed. & trans. Dom T. Symons and some further selections from the text. The so-called "Anglo-Saxon Chronicle" was read as well as written in monasteries; the different versions are printed in parallel in translations such as that by D. Whitelock in English Historical Documents (also printed separately) or by Garmonsway (Everyman). You would probably do best to follow through just one version from a single monastery.

The Monastic Constitutions of Lanfranc, ed/trans. D. Knowles (1951) gives the monastic routine as dispersed roubnd England in the generation after 1066.
Among a whole host of good monastic chronicles, I single out for interest and illumination: "The Anglo Saxon Chronicle", whose E version running up to 1154 was written at Peterborough, transls. in English Historical Documents, Vol. II, no. 1; The Life of Ailred of Rielvaux by Walter Daniel, ed/trans. F.M. Powicke (1950) [Cistercian abbot, excellently written up by A. Squire, Aelred of Rielvaux (1969)] and Jocelin of Brakelond, Chronicle of the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, trans. H.E. Butler (1949) or by D. Greenway & J. Sayers (1989) [Benedictine, with much detail about monastic life and business]

Any of the books on Art and Architecture for either period will give you plenty of material on monks and monasteries. You can probably find illustrations through the links on the HISTORY 262 pages.

There are some relevant maps elsewhere on these HISTORY 257 pages.

Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth (architecture!) and the Brother Cadfael novels of Ellis Peters can tell you much in a very enjoyable fashion about C12 monks.