Haruki Murakami - After the quake

This is a collection of short stories. Every story takes place few days or weeks after the terrible Kobe earthquake of 1995. Each one of them is based in a different Japanese place, though none in Kobe itself.

Napoleon - David Chandler

David Chandler is one of the most celebrated English speaking expert on Napoleon Bonaparte's life. His most critically acclaimed work on the subject is The campaigns of Napoleon, which contains a lot of military related details. Even though I'm not a fan of that side of the story, the life of Napoleon is an extremely interesting topic, as the Corsican was not only a military genius but also had a profound impact on European and world history, society, politics, law and culture.