What is your favorite historical book that I can devour while I'm off work?

For really niche but actually quite interesting (at least in my fiendishly, hideously, aqueductically biased opinion), there's Water Technology in the Middle Ages: Cities, Monasteries, and Waterworks after the Roman Empire, by Roberta J Magnusson. It is, no lie, legitimately my most favourite historical work ever, and not just because of the extra emotional weight it has for me (which, I will concede, is fairly significant). Magnusson presents an excellent blend of history of technology, social history, and relevant anecdotes to paint the picture of complex water systems as used in the Medieval Period. The hoops you have to jump through to secure land for running pipes from the spring to the conduit! The various ways to enforce proper usage! How Not To Be A Dick About The Water! The knavery people can get up to when stealing water!

If you're the battle-y type, my favourite in this regard is Shattered Sword: The Untold Story of the Battle of Midway, by John Parshall and Anthony Tully. Not only does it paint an excellent picture of the battle, especially of the Japanese side, but it also exposes a very great hole in the US side's general narrative of the story. (Spoiler alert: Fuchida Mitsuo is a lying liar who lies, and if he told me water was wet, I'd request independent verification.) Again there's the excellent combination of high-level analysis with the lived experiences of the Japanese sailors and pilots. I swear I've never cheered so hard when one Zero pilot, who took off early in the day and was embroiled in combat or patrol for most of it, finally got a bite to eat after he was rescued from the water. Even better than readable, it's re-readable, to the point where I use it in a metric: "Would I rather read [this book I'm considering], or would I rather read Shattered Sword?"

...writing this post reminded me of my backlog, and oh god my backlog