Caribbean - James Michener

This book is a series of short historical fiction stories based across the islands in the Caribbean.  It begins with the native Carib and Arawak peoples all the way up to the Cuban immigration into Miami in the 80's. Once you hit the 20th century, it gets pretty boring, but prior to that, I would absolutely recommend it to near anyone. Because it has short stories spread across different times and different islands, you could pick it up and put it down anytime and not lose anything because the stories are concise and separated from each other.
I was particularly fond of the politics of the islands during the periods of slavery. No matter how much I read on the subject, I cannot imagine justifying slavery.  Every slave revolt had the potential to succeed and I'm always surprised more didn't.
A great read, and recommended to everyone.

The Desert Spear - Peter V. Brett (Demon Cycle Series, Bk 2)

I definitely enjoyed the first of this series. However, this book starts out in the southern region of this fictional land and I did not like that part.  It was necessary to build the story of who Jardir was and where he came from and why he thought he was the Deliverer, but I detest the culture of the area and consequently wanted to read as little about it as possible. I took a long time getting through the first third of this book because it was only about that character. Once the story moved north, I was back to my normal pace and finished the book quickly.
There were some surprises and fantastic plot twists, as always good pacing. I will enjoy continuing with this series.