Miscellaneous recommendations...

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

Fools Rush In: Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Unmaking of AOL Time Warner by Nina Munk (Excellent)

ESPN: The Uncensored History by Michael Freeman

The Reckoning by David Halberstam  (About the auto industry, focused mostly on Ford and Nissan)

Mayday: Eisenhower, Khrushchev, and the U2 Affair by Michael Beschloss 

A Walk in the Woods: Rediscovering American on the Appalachian Trail by Bill Bryson (Highly recommended; funny and interesting)

I'm a Stranger Here Myself: Notes on Returning to America after 20 Years Away by Bill Bryson

The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid: A Memoir by Bill Bryson (Very funny book about growing up in Des Moines, IA in the 1950s)

The Lost Continent: Travels in Small Town America by Bill Bryson (Good but not great)

The Conquerors by Michael Beschloss (End of World War II)

The Last 100 Days: The Tumultuous and Controversial Story of the Final Days of World War II by John Toland

Car: A Drama of the American Workplace by Mary Walton (Truly fascinating story of the development of the second generation Ford Taurus)

This Republic of Suffering: Death and the Civil War by Drew Gilpin Faust