Boom!

By Tom Brokaw

(Random House, 688 pages, $29)

Sex, drugs, feminism, rock 'n' roll—the author of The Greatest Generation takes on the 1960s in this volume, which consists mostly of interviews with the visionaries, leaders, and ordinary people of that turbulent era. Do you actually want to read this much about what some would call the Self-Indulgent Generation? Yes, because Brokaw offers an evenhanded, nuanced perspective.

FOR YOUR NINE-HOUR DELAY:

Herodotus

By Robert B. Strassler

(Pantheon, 1,024 pages, $45)

Correct, that's 1,024 pages. And never mind that this tome weighs more than your laptop. Herodotus, a Greek historian in the fifth century B.C., is widely considered the father of the historical narrative, and this new translation of his account of the Greco-Persian wars is engrossing stuff.

FOR COCKTAIL CONVERSATION:

Guinness

By Bill Yenne

(Wiley, 250 pages, $25)

We always like to find a book we can drink along with, and this is one of those. It's a well-paced history of what's arguably the world's best-known brewery.

Carpe Diem

By Harry Mount

(Hyperion, 272 pages, $20)

If you studied Latin in high school or college and, like us, don't remember a thing, this is your book. Mount uses fun facts—that Angelina Jolie has a Latin phrase tattooed on her belly, for instance—to make a convincing case that the "dead language" is still very much alive.

Vermeer's Hat

By Timothy Brook

(Bloomsbury, 288 pages, $28)

We had no idea globalization was more than 350 years old! In truth, this is a smart, eclectic look at 17th-century history that uses the Dutch master's paintings to illuminate the beginnings of worldwide trade and travel.

FOR YOUR WALLET AND AMBITIONS:

A Million Bucks by 30

By Alan Corey

(Random House, 192 pages, $14)

Yeah, okay, another book by a precocious millionaire. But it's a great buy for a college graduate or the Gen Xer who just moved back home.

Warren Buffett Speaks

By Janet Lowe

(Wiley, 288 pages, $20)

Since the amount of money he's giving away is more than the G.D.P. of many countries, this one is a no-brainer. Be aware, though, that half the book is made up of Buffett's musings on life, friends, and family and that his discussion of investment strategies is not, strictly speaking, a guide to personal finance.

Invest Like a Shark

By James Deporre

(FT Press, 240 pages, $26)

Though deaf, jobless, and almost broke, DePorre figured out how to make real money in the stock market. Part biography, part personal-finance guide, the book basically argues that most small investors in the markets are guppies when they need to be swimming like great white sharks.

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