A book about land that is secretly about people
I picked this up on a whim and really enjoyed it. The author uses land —and the way we use it and think about and fight over it—to tell a lot about history of the world and ourselves as people. The perspective is definitely based in the Anglo-American history and legal traditions, so you won't see much here about the entire continent of Asia, despite it having most of the world's landmass. But what it does tell, it tells well, and in surprisingly narrative form. (If you chose the audio book read by the author, his narration is excellent.)