I'm choosing to interpret this to cover storylines or collections by authors, to avoid having to pick individual books from one of those lines.

• [any and all of her many books] (Doris Kearns Goodwin): A knowledgeable historian who has written works covering a number of important periods. All are very readable, give a vivid sense of actually being there, and provide context for the choices that were made and their effects.


• Guns, Germs, and Steel, and Collapse (Jared Diamond): An entertaining scientific exploration of the factors that led to the global dominance of "Western" culture. Soundly based on scientific methodology, comparing successful and durable cultures with less successful and extinct ones to work out what a culture needs to succeed. And, in Collapse, what a culture does that causes it to fail. With special cautions and warnings that our current culture is vividly displaying. A real eye-opener.


• The Laundry Files storyline (Charles Stross): Resolution of an important question in the theory of computing renders what we think of as magic tractable and computable. Computer program don't just look like magic, they can replace the magical formulas of the past with effective applications. Problem is, doing magic of any sort weakens the fabric of the universe, and the tech explosion of the late 20th century is causing the universe to come apart at the seams. Entities that are careless of or hostile to human intelligence are prone to emerge through the gaps. These are stories about the dedicated people who like their universe intact, thankyouverymuch, and are working feverishly to prevent its dissolution. Loaded with easter eggs for techies, horror fans, spy story fans, and anyone with more than a passing awareness of science fiction.


• Polychrome Heroics storyline (Elizabeth Barrette): Take all the superhero comics books ever created. Dump them all in a pile. Pull some out, clip out the good stuff, and leave behind the parts about acting out their issues by destroying things and beating one another up. Mix together. Now see what stories come out of what you've got. If you don't have what you want yet, go back and pull some more out.


• Worldwar/Colonization storyline (Harry Turtledove): Another trope stood on its head. World War II is raging when green-skinned lizardlike aliens from another star system show up with designs on conquering Earth to add to their colonial empire, and advanced technology to support this aim. Thing is, when they scouted Earth several centuries before, the most potent military force was armored knights on horseback, and the pace of their history is such that that was what they expected to have to, and were prepared to, conquer. Their colonization fleet is on the way, and things will not go well if the conquest is not complete when it arrives. The fate of our world hangs in the balance.