Hi!
I'm Czech, so these books can be both in Czech and in English. I'd like to learn more about the history of my country during the socialist regime, or the 20th century as a whole.
I know from my family's history that both sides of my family have had both their ups and downs during the interwar, socialist, and post-socialist eras - so I would like to read something actually objective about this time. NOT a Tankie style apologia, NOT a conservative-slanted antisocialist book only recalling the political repression and authoritarianism. If there is a book that talks about both the human rights repressions and the social reforms, both the people and the Party decision making, both the government and those opposed to it, both the leftist and the rightist opposition... I'd be very happy to know about it and be able to read it. Thanks a lot.
Also, slightly off the original request - if you know of something like that for other socialist countries than Czechoslovakia, OR if you know a book/source on the feminist and LGBT movements either in Czechoslovakia or the Eastern Bloc in general... I'd be glad to know about these, too.
The book you're looking for is Communist Czechoslovakia, 1945-89 by Kevin McDermott. It is a great overview of contemporary scholarship, by Czech and Slovak as well as foreign historians, on both the Czechoslovak Communist regime and Czechoslovak society during the Communist era. McDermott is British and the book is definitely aimed at an Anglophone academic audience, but I don't know of anything else that would fit the bill better. For just about anything to do with political or institutional history, you could check out Karel Kaplan. The book Elusive Equality by Melissa Feinberg, which is about women's rights in interwar Czechoslovakia, also discusses the period after 1945 and the Horáková trial. There's also a book called Sexual Liberation, Socialist Style by Kateřina Lišková which discusses gender roles and homosexuality during the Communist period, and another called Od žaláře k oltáři about movements for gay rights in the Czech lands (but I haven't read either of those books).
I might be able to provide some more recommendations if there's anything else in particular that you're interested in. Also, just out of curiosity -- there is a lot of information readily available in the Czech Republic about the Communist period, as you suggest in your post, and I'd be interested to know what specifically you find unsatisfying or unreliable about it? I don't say this to rebuke you for asking for recommendations here, or to suggest that you're wrong to question it, but just because I'm curious. You don't have to answer this question, of course.
Instead of a book, I highly recommend the TV talkshow Historie.cs. In each episode, there is a host and typically three guests, either historians or other specialists, who discuss a specific era of Czech (or Czechoslovak) history. Hosts of the show prepare well by studying episode topics and engage guests with competent questions. Topics can cover any part of Czech history and not only popular eras. Eg. recently they aired an episode where they covered the history of the Silesian city Opava (Troppau in German) throughout eras of Austria-Hungary, the 1st Republic and the socialist Czechoslovakia.
The archive boasts almost 500 episodes, each about 50 minutes long. You need to search the archive for a topic that interests you. Since most of the footage is just people sitting at a table and talking, you may as well consider it a podcast.