I'd also recommend Mary Beard's book SPQR [1].

[1]https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard/dp/16...

She also wrote some quite accessible books: https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard-ebook...

For those interested in historical topics, I would recommend Mary Beard's recent "SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome" (https://www.amazon.com/SPQR-History-Ancient-Mary-Beard/dp/08...) and Barbara Tuchman's classic on WWI, "The Guns of August" (https://www.amazon.com/Guns-August-Pulitzer-Prize-Winning-Ou...).