I'm a history librarian at a large research university. (I buy history books and documentaries with other people's money.) I've got a ton of recommendations running through my head. However, some of the more engaging history books I've read are by journalist-historians. Try Neal Bascomb, Hampton Sides, or Mitchell Zuckoff.

Right now I'm reading A Game of Birds and Wolves: The Ingenious Young Women Whose Secret Board Game Helped Win World War II by Simon Parkin and Frankie: How One Woman Prevented a Pharmaceutical Disaster by James Essinger.

The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan is a fascinating read. As is Defiant: The POWs Who Endured Vietnam's Most Infamous Prison by Alvin Townley. (I've been working on a project about personal narratives of American military POWs and In Love and War: The Story of a Family's Ordeal and Sacrifice During the Vietnam Years by Jim and Sybil Stockdale is a powerful book if you're interested in memoirs.)

You might also like:

How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr

Occupied Territory: Policing Black Chicago from Red Summer to Black Power by Simon Balto