By the age of 10 I was reading Cornelius Ryan's "The Longest Day", and books on adventuring heroes, like "Climbing Everest" (Sir Edmund Hilary), Robert Falcon Scott, Roald Admundsen, Ernest Shackleton.

The Bill O'Reilly series on the assassinations of JFK, Lincoln are breezily written page-turners;

Larson's (above) Isaac's Storm is also a possibility?

Similar to Larson's approachable writing is Neal Bascomb - "Winter Fortress" (WWII nail biter about Norwegian's sabotage efforts)

WWII classics I devoured early on- Guadalcanal Diary, 30 Seconds Over Tokyo, PT-109, "Get Yamamoto", C.S. Forester's 'Sink the Bismarck", Boyington's "Baa Baa Black Sheep", the story behind The Great Escape movie "The Wooden Horse" -don't know if these old classics are still in print.

The book behind a recent movie released "Operation Mincemeat" by Ewen Montague, "The Man Who Never Was" I read in 7th grade. I am guessing he might be a more precociously advanced reader even than I was.

Animal themes? The Herriot series, "All Creatures Great and Small" are quasi-factual: Joy Adamson's Born Free, Laura Hillenbrand "Seabiscuit", or "Making Rounds with Oscar"

Sports? Garagiola "Baseball is a Funny Game", Ron Luciano's memoirs as an umpire, Joy Piccolo's book on Brian, "A Short Season" or Steve Young's "Life Behind the Spiral"? Wells Twombly's book on George Blanda is a favorite with some exciting chapters, but in all of these sports suggestions, might not mean much if the names are not familiar. Might find similar sports memoirs for contemporary heroes that don't include partying, booze, and language? Paul James "Cougar Tales"?

Hope at least some themes here might uncover some contemporary books on themes I remember reading as a young history buff.