Just finished The Mixer by Michael Cox, and I really enjoyed it. Once I got into it I found myself absolutely firing through it and losing all track of time.
I especially enjoyed reading about the long stretch of the PL that I was too young to see.
Now im about 100 pages into this:
It's quite ambitious in that it's pretty much an attempt at a social and economic history of global Imperialism over a fairly active stretch of time, but so far I'm enjoying it, and even though it jumps from things like the increasing use of household appliances like telephones, to shipping trends, to politics, it seems to work.