History

The Greatest Presidential Stories Never Told: 100 Tales from History to Astonish, Bewilder, and Stupefy
$18.95
Some fun trivia about the U.S. Presidents. Did you know Lincoln was challenged to a duel? His weapon of choice - calvary broadswords. A truce was negotiated. Or that Grant is the only president to ever receive a speeding ticket while in office for making his horces pull his carriage at gallop speed? It's all in here. Oddly, a few tidbits are thrown in about other nation's presidents, like Santa Anna. Overall, a fun little book, just don't expect to come out with any deep thoughts about the Presidency or American history on this one.

A Short History of Nearly Everything
$16.99
GOOD BOOK. Easy to understand explanations of very complicated subjects and some very funny anecdotes.

A Really Short History of Nearly Everything
$19.99
Bill Bryson combines great intelligence, expansive knowledge, and a clear, conversational writing style to tell the history of Earth and human civilizations. With wonderful diagrams and illustrations, the book is great for kids and for grown-ups too! One point off for the editors of this edition, who didn't bother translating the book from British to American -- which, considering it's for young readers, was probably not the best choice.

History: The Definitive Visual Guide (From The Dawn of Civilization To The Present Day)
$50.00
This book is a pleasure to look at. I'm reminded of a combination of Life Magazine and National Geographic. Its got that visual quality to it. I'll let all the other reviews describe the other good stuff rather than be repetitive.

I have one concern and that is the text legibility. I wish to pass on to the publishers to please consider making the text larger even if it requires that some of the pictures be a little smaller. Also background images obscure the readability of the text. Some people actually do want to read the book and some of the text is a challenge for me to read because of the size of the print or the fact that the legibility is obscured by a background image.