Stonewall: The Riots That Sparked the Gay Revolution by David Carter, rating: 8/10

What's interesting is that the police never shot anyone. At one point, the police barricaded themselves inside the mob run Stonewall Inn nightclub and improvised firebombs were being thrown inside by the incensed crowd outside that 'finally had enough'.

Fateful Choices by Ian Kershaw

I heard about this book while in Paris on CNN Int'l. It's a 2007 book which basically goes back to WWII and reviews ten choices made which altered the course of the war dramatically. They are all fascinating. A couple which I had no idea about were the choices of Japan at that time to continue its aggression against China and the rest of Asia -- it was at the time highly dependent on American oil -- and Germany to go back on its agreement with Russia and actually attack Russia, the two front war decision. But besides these there is also the decision by Great Britain to continue to fight Germany despite expectations of a near destruction of its army (expeditionary force, it was called) in France near Dunkirk and the imminent surrender of close allies Belgium and France. A really thick tome, but exceptionally well written as it considers the thinking at the time and the egos of the personalities involved in making the decisions.