The Husband Hunters: American Heiresses Who Married into the British Aristocracy by Anne de Courcy, St.. Martin's Press, 2018, 320 pages.

How the South Won the Civil War by Heather Cox Richardson, Oxford University Press, NY, 2020, 240 pages.

Tenements, Towers and Trash: An Unconventional History of New York City by Julia Wertz. Black Dog & Leventhal, 2017. 284 pages.

Victoria and Albert: A Royal Love Affair by Daisy Goodwin. St Martin's Press, 2017, 304 Pages

Black Potatoes: the story of the Great Irish Famine, 1845-1850 by Susan Campbell Bartoletti. Houghton Miffin Company, Boston, 2001 180 pages.

Bartoletti is a well known and highly respected writer and researcher of History for  children. Social history of the Irish Potato Famine. Good scientific explanation and first person account of famine, as well as explaination of British political policies that caused the famine and caused mass exodus from Ireland.

Bodies From The Ash: Life and Death in Ancient Pompeii by James M Deem. Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston. 2005. 50 pages.

Deem retells the story of the devastating eruption of Mt. Vesuvius and subsequent destruction of Pompeii in 79 A.D. using lots of photographs, primary sources and side bars and lively text. Very well done and fascinating-- archaeology, science, social history and adventure-- all at once. In addition to photos, includes timeline, bibliography, and maps. Final chapter details the current precarious state of the ruins and raises the question of what would happen if the volcano erupted today. Loved it. Kids do too.