I don't mean to nitpick, Tom, but is this really your plan?

Bathsheba Demuth, Floating Coast: ( people and animals' histories are linked )
Jared Farmer, Trees in Paradise: A California History: ( interesting way to tell the history )
Eric L. Goldstein, The Price of Whiteness: Jews, Race, and American Identity: ( a lot to think about )

Guy Lawson, Octopus: Sam Israel, the Secret Market, and Wall Street’s Wildest Con: ( The con conned )
Jen Manion, Female Husbands: ( history of gender identification )
Wes Moore, Five Days: ( Baltimore protests )
Gordon H. Chang, Ghosts of Gold Mountain: ( the Chinese workers who built the railway )
Eula Biss, Having and Being Had: ( whiteness as property )
Tracy Campbell, The Year of Peril: ( 1942 )
Tim Harford, The Data Detective: Ten Easy Rules to Make Sense of Statistics: ( don't lie with statistics )