h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I'm reading Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow ATM, it's been really quiet at work

That's a really good book. the film was a bit of a mess, though.

The title was changed for the Americans, to "Smilla's Sense Of Snow". This conjured up agreat mental image for me, of Americans being confused by the original title, and picturing Miss Smilla, on her hands and knees, "feeling for snow" in the same way as one might feel for a lost contact lens.

RF

Well things have to be made simple for the American's, god knows how they cope with Miss Marple and Poirot

A good historical sries is the one by Colleen McCullough about Republican Rome.
In order:
'The First Man in Rome'
'The Grass Crown'
'Fortune's Favourites'
'Caeser's Women'
'Caeser'
Well-researched, no obvious historical errors that I noticed (none of this making Brutus Caesers foster brother like 1 bestseller did ), and very readable.

Didn't she write the Thorn Birds?

yes
also wrote 'Song of Troy' which is a modern retelling of the Trojan War with the supernatural mostly removed

Something like the film Troy then

Wasn't that the one with the computer game?

B