I posted this in a question about books on Central Asian history, but feel it would serve a wider audience here as well:

I can suggest some names that focus more on the more modern era, that is to say from Russian colonization until the present:

• Jeff Sahadeo has written about the Russian establishment of Tashkent, Russian Colonial Society in Tashkent, 1865-1923 (2010), and has some other writings on Russian society in Central Asia, primarily Uzbekistan (disclosure: Jeff was a professor of mine during grad school, and while I didn't take any courses with him, I know him on a personal level).

• Picking up where Sahadeo leaves off, Paul Stronski has Tashkent: Forging a Soviet City, 1930–1966 (2010).

• For a more broader overview of the region, try and find anything by Edward Allworth. His work is a little older now (he was active in the 1960s and 1970s), but is still a major foundation of studies. In particular you may want to read his The Modern Uzbeks : From the fourteenth Century to the Present : A Cultural History (1990).

• In the same series (as Allworth's book is Martha Brill Olcott's The Kazakhs (revised in 1995).

For the Soviet era there is also some good works that have been released, and nearly every country has something now:

• Tribal Nation: The Making of Soviet Turkmenistan by Adrienne Lynn Edgar (2006). One of my favourite books, it looks at how the Bolsheviks effectively created the concept of the Turkmen nationality.

• Making Uzbekistan: Nation, Empire, and Revolution in the Early USSR by Adeeb Khalid (2015). Khalid is one of the more prominent scholars on Soviet Central Asia, so look for other stuff from him.

• Despite Cultures: Early Soviet Rule in Tajikistan by Botakoz Kassymbekova (2016). Kassymbekova is Tajik, and despite being an academic work she does a really good job of keeping the writing clear and interesting.

• In a similar vein: The Birth of Tajikistan: National Identity and the Origins of the Republic by Paul Bergne (2018).

• The Hungry Steppe: Famine, Violence, and the Making of Soviet Kazakhstan by Sarah Cameron (2020). I haven't read this yet, but it's gotten great reviews so far.

• Kyrgyzstan is the one country that doesn't have much out there (yet), but I can offer a couple that may be worth looking into: Speaking Soviet with an Accent: Culture and Power in Kyrgyzstan by Ali Igmen (2012). This looks more at cultural clubs in the country and how the Bolsheviks used them to "modernize" the Kyrgyz people (meaning ending their nomadic lifestyle). You may also want to look at Nationalism in Central Asia: A Biography of the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan Boundary by Nick Megoran (2017). This focuses on the post-Soviet era and the border dispute between the two states, but I can't comment more as I haven't read it.

• Lastly, as an overview of the post-Soviet era, I'd highly recommend Inside Central Asia: A Political and Cultural History of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Iran by Dilip Hiro (2010). It gives a short overview of each state since 1991, and he provides a fairly comprehensive bibliography as well. I'd also suggest Alexander Cooley, who has written a couple books on the modern (post-September 11) Central Asia, as that region has become relevant geopolitically.

I finished reading The Color of Law by Richard Rothstein and I highly recommend it. It is an in-depth but easy-to-understand account of the history of housing laws. Richard argues that Black neighborhoods came about because of de jure segregation (by law) and not de facto segregation (the argument that Black families just choose to live in these areas). He talks about the generational implications of these laws, wage laws, etc. He explores metropolitan areas and explains how house deeds, the FHA, and HOAs created the pockets of Black neighborhoods. He even goes into depth about how the government reinforced the stereotype that Black neighborhoods were "unsafe" which led to over-policing of them today.

u/Commustar recommended The Civilizations of Africa by Christopher Ehret and I'm having a blast reading it. It's exceedingly well organized, I'm learning a ton and I'm not having any particular difficulties accessing the information enough though a lot of it is incredibly new to me. I'm about halfway through and I've taken so many notes it's awesome.

My favorite line so far:

We will learn, among other things, about the unique style of building in coral in the Swahili city-states; the great stone-walled structures of the capitol city of the Zimbabwe kingdom, built without mortar yet still standing centuries later; and the wooden palaces off the Mangbetu kings, which rivaled Japanese palaces and temples as the largest wooden structures ever built.

Is Puyi's autobiography "From Emperor to Citizen" worth reading? I know next to nothing about Chinese history, only the basics: the monarchy was abolished. Japan invaded China. There was a communist revolution. Taiwan broke away. China invaded Tibet. There was a famine. Mao resigned.

I am looking for secondary sources on Baldwin IV of Jerusalem, particularly with respect to "interactions" with Saladin and the Arabic view of him.

I am currently reading a mystery / thriller - Reliquary by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child and lot of it is set in the underground world of New York City. It seems really fascinating and I'd like to read more about it and the "Mole people" who inhabit this world.

I found one book called "The Mole People" by Jennifer Toth but the reviews are average.

Any other books or resources that you may recommend?

Probably a long shot, but is there anything about the Seima-Turbino phenomenon that‘s readable for a knowledgeable non-historian? Or along the same lines, about the dispersion of the Uralic languages?

This is a bit specific, hopefully not controversial, but are the any books like Zinn’s People’s History but focused on WW2? I just want some less US focused general book about the different fronts and main events