Anything by Barbara Tuchman, but I'd start with The Guns of August.

Thanks everyone, this will keep me busy for a while!

Not A Good Day To Die, by Sean Naylor:

http://www.amazon.com/Not-Good-Day-Die-Operation/dp/0425207870

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee -- changed my feelings about the history of the West

Agree with Killer Angels which is a really compelling, almost novelistic treatment of the Battle of Gettysburg. McCullough is great for the American Revolution and his book on Teddy Roosevelt's childhood.

For straight-up history of the Civil War, Battle Cry of Freedom is very readable and comes in some editions with fascinating photos and maps. It was one of the bases for the Ken Burns series.

David McCullough can be a little like rise and fall of third reich. For example he describes the weather etc. but still a good read. I would recommend

Red China Blues. By Jan Wong Written by a Chinese Canadien student who studied in Chine during the Mao Zedong cultural revolution up to her account of the Tianamen Square Massacre. I didn't know anything about china before picking up this book and I was riveted.

A lot of people recommend a people's history of the United States by Howard zinn. I have never read it.

I would also personally recommend Lakota Woman by Mary crow dog a personal account of the American Indian Mvement covering the takeover of the US Bureau of Indian affairs building in DC.

A few more
Lies my teacher told me: everything your american history teacher got wrong by James loewen

Gideon's Trumpet by Anthony Lewis about the back story leading to the Supreme Court decision that all criminal defendants are entitled to an attorney

For American history-
Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W Loewen

http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/296662.Lies_My_Teacher_Told_Me

Don't Know Much About History:

http://www.amazon.com/Dont-Know-About-History-Anniversary/dp/0061960543/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402710925&sr=1-1&keywords=don%27t+know+much+about+history

or A People's History:
http://www.amazon.com/Peoples-History-United-States-Present/dp/0060838655/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1402710967&sr=1-1&keywords=howard+zinn

Worst Hard Time

I really enjoyed 1776. D McCullough.

A Little History of the World. Title says it all.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=A+little+history+of+the+world

Jeff shaara, The Killer Angels for civil war was excellent and very readable for this non-buff.

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, by Charles MacKay. Essential.

Hopefully by the title it's obvious what I'm looking for. I enjoy reading history books but some of them are hard to get through. As an example, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich was just too hard to read, too much information and too many details. I'm not looking for clif notes but something that is compelling and intriguing like The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. What books about the American Revolution, Civil War, 6 Day War, the partition of india, etc are considered to be the best?