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SPQR
Mary Beard, 2015
A thousand years of Rome by a historian who shows you how we know what we know.
Finalist for the 2015 National Book Critics Circle Award in nonfiction. Source: Wikipedia
Long read, about 608 pages
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The Guns of August
Barbara W. Tuchman, 1962
The first month of the First World War, and how leaders blundered into it.
Long read, about 511 pagesPulitzer Prize, 1963.
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The Swerve
Stephen Greenblatt, 2011
A book hunter finds a lost Roman poem in 1417, and old ideas change the world.
Pulitzer Prize, 2012.
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Rubicon
Tom Holland, 2003
The fall of the Roman Republic, told like a thriller.
Medium length, about 378 pages
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Postwar
Tony Judt, 2005
Europe from 1945 to 2005 in one clear, opinionated book. Long but rewarding.
Long read, about 878 pages
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The Splendid and the Vile
Erik Larson, 2020
Churchill's first year as prime minister, day by day, through the Blitz.
Long read, about 608 pages
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The Making of the Atomic Bomb
Richard Rhodes, 1986
The science, people and choices behind the bomb. Gripping and humane.
Long read, about 886 pagesPulitzer Prize, 1988.
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Endurance
Alfred Lansing, 1959
Shackleton's crew, stranded on the ice for over a year. Every one came home.
How we pick. A person picks every book here, not an algorithm, and each one says why. No ads, affiliate links or paid placement.