Just finished up the Drillmaster of Valley Forge, the story of Baron de Steuben (or Baron Von Steuben as one might have learned in US History, he himself preferred the French de Steuben). Very good book (ok shameless plug, as it was written by a professor of mine from university) and a very good story of European contributions to the war in the colonies and the tensions between American colonists born in the colonies and the Europeans who came to aid in the cause.
Today I just started Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue (author escapes me at the moment) but it seems so far to be about the eccentricities of the English language and how we came to Modern English via various other language, both European and non-European. Pretty fascinating stuff, but linguistics and etymology are fun areas of study for me.