Treat yourself to 200 years of American history, with Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series:
1876, Burr, Lincohn, Empire, Hollywood, Washington, DC, The Golden Age.
When I heard the news of his passing tonight and went back to look at the list of his books, I was amazed at the shear volume of his work as well as the number of pages of his novels I read of his great stories during much of my life!