The White Princess by Philippa Gregory (historical fiction 2013)

The story is told from the POV of Elizabeth of York, which is an interesting idea.  While Gregory does weave a good yarn, sometimes she's lazy with the words themselves, tending to repeat certain phrases and words several times.  As is the norm for most historical fiction writers, she uses a lot of gossipy "history" without evidence as the basis for her story.

428 AD - An Ordinary Year at the End of the Roman Empire by Giusto Traina (nonfiction 2009)

A wonderful and exciting look around the Mediterranean in one year.  It would seem impossible to be concise, but Traina pulls political/religious, social, economic, and military factors into a coherent narrative.