u/Baratticus

I’ve enjoyed reading history books for decades but lately I feel like books I’m picking up would make excellent long articles but (I’m guessing for financial reasons) were stretched out to book length. Long chapters about marginally relevant people or events, repeating facts and ideas over and over (and over) again and generally padding the word count for no narrative, artistic, or contextual reason.

So, all that being said, I’m looking for recommendations of history books that you felt were (as they used to say ) ‘all killer, no filler’. The book needed to be as long as it was and the author did an excellent job of informing the reader while holding your attention.

Any topic or time period is welcome but I am partial to pre-WWII history (so, 10,000 BCE - 1939) 😁

Thanks in advance!

I’m wondering if anyone knows of a series where the author takes the character(s) through different sub-genres. My original thought was as a reflection of stages in life but it need not be. For example:

1. Young hero joins the quest/defeats the evil - standard swords & sorcery
2. Hero has become some sort of leader - political intrigue
3. Hero settles into retirement/mentorship/deification - detective? Cozy? cosmic?

Edit: thank you for these suggestions! Although my TBR list will be groaning under the (digital) weight of all these adds!

I'm looking to get my 200+ audible wishlist into a spreadsheet but am having trouble finding a way to do an export. The Audible Library Extractor extension for Chrome doesn't seem to work for wishlists (reading past posts it looks like it once did but I'm assuming something on the Audible side broke that part of the add on).

Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Audible says “some member-exclusive sales are reserved for Premium” but I’m trying to get a sense of just how many sales (particularly the big semi-annual) are premium reserved. Anyone have any insight?

Thanks!

Looking for suggestions about a book set in a world in which the Kessler effect (where too many satellites lead to cascading collisions and getting into/out of orbit very difficult/impossible to navigate) plays a major role.

Thanks in advance!

Looking for books about heroism…not specific biographies but rather attempts to distill what makes people act in heroic ways (although case studies and historical examples are always good).

Thanks in advance!

Looking for collections of either specific historical events or more general time periods written by contemporary observers or participants. Interested in any area of the world and anytime from the dawn of civilization to 9/11.

Thanks in advance!