I've read many of the standard college textbooks that give the broad view of eastern and western civilizations. I've read about Rome to the point of exhaustion, and I'm not terribly interested in war or politics. I studied art history in college, and I love the sort of history that gets into the small details - how pots were glazed, how horses were tamed, and how agriculture and trade evolved over time. Archaeology, I guess.
I absolutely loved Morris Bishop's 'The Middle Ages'. I don't need visuals, but I prefer authors who are willing to engage in a bit of conjecture and imaginative reconstruction. I would also really love to read about some of the less 'popular' subjects:
Do you guys have any suggested reading? And is this an appropriate question for this subreddit?
For Europe I'd suggest the series on the 'History of Civilization' by Will Durant. Most of each book is dedicated to art, literature, philosophy, law and customs, or revealing mini-biographies of major figures with quotes from primary sources, with a small section here and there for politics and war. I'd avoid the volume on 'Our Oriental Heritage', because he makes a lot of mistakes there, but even then it was remarkable for its time for having at least tried to fight the overwhelming Eurocentrism of western historiography about our roots.
There are tons of specialist books for Latin America, which is what I study, but I'm unsure if there is an accessible text that deals with pre-Columbian America. Charles C. Mann wrote a great book called 1491: The Americas before Columbus, but it's more about updating you on archeological progress than it is a step by step depiction of those societies in the way you describe (I only mention it because of how well written it is, as well as the fact that it was done for non-specialists). Although often times very dense, I'd recommend reading the pertinent sections of The History of Latin America done by Cambridge. It's in somewhere between 9-13 volumes, depending on the edition. In the earlier volumes they have chapters on pre-Columbian civilization, each article done by a specialist. I'm 99% sure they have a few articles in volumes 1 dealing with culture, mores, etc.
I enjoyed this book 15 years ago. The author goes through the calendar and discusses what happens in day to day life along with seasonal changes.
The Year 1000: What Life Was Like at the Turn of the First Millennium, An Englishman's World