This lists the general historical books I use for researching my fiction.

• Everyday Life Through the Ages, Reader’s Digest, 1992.
  • This book is an overview of how daily life evolved throughout human history. What I love about this one is that it doesn’t focus solely on Western society, but covers civilizations from Tokuwaga Japan to the Zulus and Aztecs. Also, it’s lavishly illustrated throughout, with period pictures as well as images of artefacts from that particular time period. The text is well-written and informative, and there is a comprehensive index.
• The Encyclopedia of World Mythology, by Arthur Cotterell and Rachel Storm, Lorenz Books, 2001
  • A fantastic encyclopedia of mythology, arranged by culture. Includes Greece, Rome, Scandinavian, Celt, Egypt/Fertile Crescent, India, and China/Japan/Tibet. Lavishly illustrated, and very informative on a wide range of gods, goddesses and mythical objects. The version I own loses points because of the index (which is only a list of all the articles, and doesn’t really help when you’re looking for a particular god of something in a particular culture without having any idea of his name). There’s no section on American beliefs, but you can turn to the Jones and Molyneaux encyclopedia (see the Pre-Columbian America page) for a similar book on North American Indians, Aztecs, Mayas and Incas.
• The Times History of the World, R. J. Overy, Times Books, 1999 (or any reasonably recent edition)
  • Another book no writer of historical fiction should be without: a historical Atlas of the world that has maps of everything from the Hindu Empires to WW1. Again, not focused on Western society, and I love the maps over the whole globe, which are amazing eye-openers.