Good History/Nonfiction Books

Any recommendations on nonfiction/history? I like nonfiction that reads like a novel -- strong voice, at least reasonably not dense. I really liked Jonathan Harr, Mark Steel, and John Carlin, but I couldn't stand David McCullough, not because he's a bad writer but because of the citations. They just disturbed my reading too much for me to like his work. So please, no in-text citations.

tl;dr: What is /book/'s favorite nonfiction and history?

>>14
You don't know what a pun is.

Right now I am reading "The Imperial Cruise" and really enjoying it. It's a historical account of our forien policy during the turn of the 20th century. It's literally laugh out loud funny because the author gives you the true version of how things were back then not the whitewashed textbook version. For instance apparently Teddy Roosevelt was quite the ladyboy before he launched a media campaign to show how manly he was.

For instance when he was an assemblyman the other assemblymen called TR "Oscar Wilde" in reference to the scandalised gay author

T.R's college roommate saw him lifting weights in the gym once and thought "he must be a humble-minded chap, to give such a lady-like performance in such a public place"

In one newspaper the reporter wondered if Theodore was "given to sucking the knob of an ivory cane"