Recently Read

Dean King, The Feud: The Hatfields & McCoys: The True Story: A detailed history of the multigenewration feud between two Appalachian families that started as an outgrowth of the Civil War.  The families were on different sides, of course, and while that started the fight, commercial differences and revenge played a part as well.  There's nothing romantic about it, but it really captures how rapidly a dispute wth no real law enforcement gets out of hand.  Part of why I find anarho-libertarian ideas so weird.

Brian D.  Aitken, The Blue Tent Sky: How The Left's War on Guns Cost Me My Son and My Freedom
From Amazon.com:

In 2010 Brian Aitken was sentenced to seven years in prison for possessing firearms he legally owned. He lost everything, including custody of his son, for a crime he did not commit. After spending four months in behind bars, Governor Chris Christie demanded his release. This is his story.

 This is one of those stories that you read and find yourself wondering what sort of judges and prosecutors New Jersey has, and who stole their souls.  Quite depressing, but at leasdt he only spent a few months in prison for offending the puritanical craziness of New Jersey's gun control fanatics.

Laurence Berfgreen, Over the Edge of the World: Magellan's Terrifying Circumnavigation of the Globe.  Just what the subtitle suggests, a detailed history of Ferdinand Magellan's first circumnavigation of the world, with all the royal gameplaying between the Spanish and Portuguese crowns you might expect.  I have always wanted to know more about in case a student in Western Civ asks me questions about Magellan, and now I know a lot more than I used to.  Very interesting.