I'm finishing up with Volume II of Jonathan Sumption's series on the Hundred Years' War (covering the 1349-1367 period). Each volume is 6-800 pages of intrigue, diplomacy, politics, battles, banditry, taxes, negotiations, angry mobs, murder, backstabbing (both literal and figurative), rebellion, legal wrangling, rape, pillage, slaughter, accounting, and revolution. I highly recommend it. One of the main characters in Vol. II is my nominee for most perfidious character in all of history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_II_of_Navarre
Other books I've read recently that I would recommend:
Shattered Sword by Parshall & Tully (about the Battle of Midway, almost entirely from the Japanese perspective - debunks several of the myths that have long held sway over the American narrative of the battle)
Guadalcanal by Frank (definitive history of the Guadalcanal campaign)
Guadalcanal: Decision at Sea by Hammel (on one of the important night surface naval battles of the said campaign - probably the most important of them all)
By Way of Deception by Victor Ostrovsky (tell-all book about his experience in the Mossad)
Sleeping With the Devil by Bob Baer (about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the oil industry, and American foreign policy in the Middle East. Book that partially inspired one of my favorite movies, Syriana)
All of these are non-fiction - and are far more interesting than anything some silly fiction writer could ever dream up.
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Book 4 of game of thrones would be a terrible season
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