by Steven Pressfield (1998)
An astonishing historical recreation of the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BC, where King Leonidas and 300 Spartans held off the million-man Persian invasion force to protect the cradle of Western democracy.
Madeline Miller
Banished by Zeus to the solitary island of Aiaia, the daughter of the titan Helios discovers she possesses the power of witchcraft, taming wild beasts and navigating treacherous encounters with Odysseus, Daedalus, and the Minotaur.
Thucydides, Robert B. Strassler
Thucydides chronicles the devastating twenty-seven-year civil war between democratic Athens and oligarchic Sparta that ended the Golden Age of Greece, creating the foundation of political realism.
Vivian Stuart
The sepoys, native soldiers serving in the British army, are massing in response to a prophecy predicting the end of the reign of the British East India Company. Alexander Sheridan—in command of a scratch cavalry force of civilian volunteers, unemployed officers and loyal Indian soldiers stands against atrocities on both sides of the conflict, judging all by their merit rather than by the color of their skin or the details of their religion.
J.R.R. Tolkien
In the peaceful Shire, Frodo Baggins inherits the One Ring of the Dark Lord Sauron. Accompanied by a diverse fellowship of men, elves, dwarves, and hobbits, he embarks on an epic quest across Middle-earth toward the fires of Mount Doom.