* “In a Sunburned Country”:amazon by Bill Bryson. Humorous Australian travelogue. Easy breezy read.
* “Empires of the Sea”:amazon by Roger Crowley. More than you ever wanted to know about the battles for control of the Mediterranean in the 1500s between the Ottoman empire and the various Christian states. Brutal unforgiving warfare.
* “Tycoon’s War”:amazon by Stephen Dando-Collins. The story of Vanderbilt’s machinations in Central America. Some of Vanderbilt sections are interesting, but the details on minor skirmishing in Central America put me to sleep.
And some fiction to cleanse the palate:
* “Suffer the Little Children”:amazon by Donna Leon. Great entry in a detective series set in Venice. No grand action sequences, just human foibles and painful results.