Weekend history reading

Mike Dash, who curates odd corners of history for Past Imperfect, a blog published by the Smithsonian Institution,  is one of The Browser's current Five Books interviewees, discussing five examples of what he calls hidden history. It's a good introduction both to Dash and to The Browser's Five Books project, and might give you some suggestions for weekend reading.

Also in that line, maybe, my old colleague John Johnston has recently expanded his range from history to the historical novel. Thomas: A Secret Life, recently published, also riffs on a "hidden history." Its protagonist figures in eighteenth-century Canadian history but this story covers his earlier life in Bourbon France.  Sequel possibilities?