Lacey, Robert and Danny Danziger. The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millenium (facts and principles inside and outside Saxon England)
Higginbotham, Adam. Midnight in Chernobyl: the Untold Story of the World's Greatest Nuclear Disaster.
Godwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals - The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln.
Larson, Erik. Dead Wake: the Last Crossing of the Lusitania. On May 1st, 1915 the Lusitania set sail on its final voyage. Well researched and compelling story of that crossing and the circumstances that led to its sinking with such a large loss of civilian life.
Solzhenitsen, Aleksandr. The Gulag Archipelago. This 3 volume non-fiction text covers life in what is often known as the gulag, the Communist Soviet forced labour camp system, through a narrative constructed from various sources including reports, interviews, statements, diaries, legal documents, and Solzhenitsyn's own experience as a gulag prisoner.
Winchester, Simon. The Professor and The Madman. (tale of compilation of Oxford Dictionary)
Ambrose, Stephen. Undaunted Courage. (Compelling story of Lewis and Clark expedition)
Tuban, Jeffrey. A Vast Conspiracy. (well researched account of Clinton tragedy)
Sontag, Sherry. Blindman’s Bluff. (story of American submarine espionage, for Clancy fans)
Cahill, Thomas. How the Irish Saved Civilization. (just what the title suggests)
Herman, Arthur. How the Scots Invented the Modern World. (just what the title suggests)
Marquez, Gabriel Garcia. Notes on a Kidnapping. (investigation behind Pablo Escobar’s terror)
Diamond, Jared. Guns, Germs, and Steel. (readable work of 13,000 years of history)
Larson, Erik. The Devil and the White City. (the Chicago World’s Fair and the first serial killer)
Fleming, Thomas. Duel. (story of duel between Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton)
Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point. (explains why changes in society occur suddenly)
Gourevitch, Phillip. We Wish to Inform You Tomorrow We Will be Killed with Our Families.(Rwanda Genocide)
Menzies, Gavin. 1421: The Year China Discovered America. (discovery before Columbus?)
Huffington, Arianna. Pigs at the Trough. (what to do about greedy CEOs and politicians)
Lewis, Bernard. The Crisis of Islam. (origins of 9-11 thru history of conflict between Islam and West)
Levitt, Stephen and Stephen Dubner. Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything. (interesting illumination of mysteries of everyday life)
Friedman, Thomas. The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century (advances in technology)
Brown, Dee. Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West
Tuchman, Barbara A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous Fourteenth Century (example of a single feudal lord to trace the history of the 14th century)
Machiavelli, Niccolo The Prince (A treatise giving the absolute ruler practical advice on ways to maintain a strong central government)
Karlsen, Carol The Devil in the Shape of a Woman: Witchcraft in Colonial New England (The status of women in colonial society affects the Salem witch accusations)
Epstein, Norrie Friendly Shakespeare: A Thoroughly Painless Guide to the Best of the Bard(perspective on Shakespeare's works through these sidelights, interpretations, anecdotes, and historical insights)
Gwynne, S.C. Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, The Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American History (war with Comanches, story of Cynthia Parker whose son became the last and greatest chief of the Comanche tribe)