Margaret the First by Danielle Dutton

 A strange little novella about Margaret Cavendish, a 17th century British duchess and noted for being one of the first women authors to be published.  Dutton has researched her life and times very well, and gives a convincing picture of the period and life among the royal court.  Margaret is quite an odd character, quite full of herself; she yearns to be not like others but 'Margaret the First'.  She has quite an imagination, which overflows into her writing but also leads to several stunts to attract attention.  An interesting view into an unusual life.  160 pages

Island Beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende

I've enjoyed several books by this author focused on life in the Americas.  This one follows Zarite, known as Tete, the daughter of an African mother she never knew, and a white sailor, as she grows up in slavery in Saint-Domingue in the 1770s.  She is purchased by Toulouse Valmorain, to serve in his house and later as his concubine.  The book conveys well the horrid conditions of slavery in the sugar cane plantations that leads to a slave revolt.  When the Valmorain family escapes to Cuba, and later New Orleans, Tete accompanies the family and eventually gains her freedom.  Characters are connected in surprising ways, in some cases in ways that stretch credulity, but the overall picture of the time is very colorful, and you have to root for Tete to pull through.  Translated from the Spanish.  457 pages.

The Thirty Years War: Europe's Tragedy by Peter H. Wilson

A complex and indepth work, the book covers the period of the Thirty Years War (1618-1645) as well as extensively detailing the period immediately before the war. All the factions and nations involved are extensively profiled and discussed. Wilson also goes over much of the previous scholarship of the war in an attempt to make sense of the conflict's origins and causes. Well written and thoughtful the book does tend to get bogged down by an endless array of German princlings and locations. A good working knowledge of German geography would be useful to the reader. 851 pages.