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It is a truism that we ignore history at our own peril. However, few of us want to page through dusty textbooks, and often what we want is entertainment.

Fortunately, enjoyment and learning go hand in hand in these nonfiction history books that are written with the flair of a novel. These titles, a mix of newer and older, are page-turners in the best sense; you’ll learn something new on each page and want to keep reading!

“The Lost Cities of El Norte,” by Peter Stark, is a fresh telling of the 1540 Coronado Expedition in which Spanish conquistadors traversed 2,500 miles seeking fabled cities of gold in present-day California, Arizona, New Mexico and Kansas.

Stark provides a vivid account of the Spaniards’ blunderings and atrocities, and the many ways that Native nations resisted and finally repelled the invaders.

As a former Outside magazine writer, Stark’s prose shines when describing the formidable and beautiful terrain of what is now the American Southwest.

In “Island at the Edge of the World,” archaeologist Mike Pitts untangles the histories of Rapa Nui (Easter Island), upending Western views of the island’s settlement and downfall.

Pitts draws on previously overlooked oral histories collected in the early 20th century by Katherine Routledge, the first anthropologist to consult with Rapa Nui elders and document their accounts of the island’s past.

Pitts incorporates recent archaeological discoveries and DNA research to paint a fuller picture of the island’s monumental statues and their creators.

“Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World” by Jack Weatherford is a gripping account of Genghis Khan’s rise to power from humble beginnings in the 12th century to the creation of the vast Mongol Empire, stretching from Siberia to India and Hungary.

While many of us have an image of Genghis Khan as a ruthless warrior, we may be less aware of his numerous innovations — such as public schools, printing technology (centuries before Gutenberg), paper money and a postal service — that had a great impact on Western cultures.

“In the Heart of the Sea,” by Nathaniel Philbrick, is a dramatic tale of the true-life events upon which Herman Melville’s classic “Moby-Dick” was based.

Drawing upon a recently discovered journal of the ship’s cabin boy, Philbrick brings to life the story of the Essex, a whaleship in the early 1800s that was rammed by a sperm whale, leaving the men aboard to fend for survival on the open sea.

This riveting narrative is interspersed with fascinating details about the whaling industry, as well as life in 19th-century Nantucket, where women led society much of the year while the men were away at sea.

In “By the Fire We Carry,” Cherokee journalist Rebecca Nagle braids a modern-day courtroom thriller with a historical chronicle of the forced removal of Native Americans from their lands, and ongoing acts of Indigenous resistance.

The contemporary legal thread centers on the landmark 2020 case Sharp v. Murphy, challenging the state of Oklahoma’s right to prosecute a murder that took place on tribal land. The ruling would ultimately define legal jurisdiction on almost half the land in Oklahoma.

Historian Claudio Saunt writes, “I cannot think of a book that more powerfully illustrates that the past is never dead.”

“The Big Burn,” by Seattle author Timothy Egan, is one of his older titles — it was published in 2010 — but the sizzling story of the 1910 forest fires that raged across Montana, Idaho and Washington is as relevant as ever.

The nail-biting descriptions of the blaze, which tested the capabilities of the new U.S. Forest Service, are balanced with a study of the early U.S. conservation movement and some of its towering figures, including Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir and Gifford Pinchot.

Bellingham historian Clyde W. Ford’s “A High Price for Freedom” is engrossing and highly readable.

Each chapter spotlights a lesser-known person or event from U.S. history. Topics include the role of women in slave ship revolts, the influence of Islam in early America and the real story behind Juneteenth.

This slim book packs a powerful punch that will keep you turning the pages.

Explore more history reading suggestions at spl.org/history.

By Paige Chernow, Adult Services librarian

This column was originally published in part in the Seattle Times as part of our monthly column, and is reprinted here with permission.