If you're into ancient history, this is a must, and I loved it!

This is about Thera, so you don't have to worry about space aliens helping out. The author is considered "controversial" (see the PBS biography) probably because his tendency is to be more definite about some things than most scientists (the date of the Thera explosion he lists as 1628BC, other scientists are not so definite), and he kind of wanders from his subject a lot. I did learn what a "jiffy" is (the time it takes light to cross the diameter of a proton).