In my opinion, don't read a history of modern China as your first "go to" book on the topic. To actually understand the modern era in China, you need to understand China's imperial history. That being said, the most comprehensive find (at an affordable price) on Chinese history, with the latest information, would be "Imperial China 900-1800 by FW Mote.

The fact is, as Mote says in his introduction, that any good study of modern China, must be coupled with an understanding of Imperial China. Books on modern China are a dime in a dozen, often written by people with questionable motives or sources. Mote however is the granddaddy of Sinologists (specifically in the US), and his work is seen as a classic.

China: A New History by JK Fairbank is the standard survey work, covering roughly the entire historical period (ie, no bronze age).

Ideally, I would like an overview of the ancient to modern, but I know that's a lot. Even more ideally, I wold like something with a slight flair/narrative and not a dry presentation of the timeline, but I'm not picky.

If you like a narrative version but something restricted to modern China (1800 and beyond) then the Fall and Rise of China by Richard Baum and Spencer's Search for Modern China are both good reads.

You can take a look at the China section of the Books and Resources List on this sub's wiki.

This is China: The First 50,000 years was great read, and isn't too difficult to understand. Link

Approaching it from a slightly different angle that might be more or less dry to you depending on your interests is http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=0300101112

"The Retreat of the Elephants" by Mark Elvin

It's a self described "environmental" history of China. It approaches about 3000 years of Chinese history from the perspective of the agricultural changes and systems and how they shaped and drastically changed the Chinese landscape. In the process it naturally also acts as a primer on basically every other major element of Chinese history.

This particular historical lens is perhaps more important in China than in some other areas, as China is in a lot of ways unique because of its extreme agricultural productivity in previous eras.

**A word of warning for the uninitiated about Chinese history. You will have a very hard time with names. Every English student of Chinese history who does not have a background in the language has a difficult time keeping track of proper nouns. It's honestly helpful to keep a notebook even if you're just reading for fun. This may sound snooty, or as if I'm saying you're not culturally literate. This isn't true, it really can be that tricky even if you're an adept student.

The Cambridge Illustrated History of China I got this book for a class on China. It's pretty good, it covers all of the period and dynasties in China's history in reasonable depth.