Christianity through the centuries: a history of the Christian church - Earle E. Cairns

Modern Hebrew for beginners - Esther Raizen

I found this an excellent book for learning Hebrew, particularly due to the accompanying website which has audio and video clips to aid in learning pronunciation and listening skills. The book reads from right to left and teaches the Hebrew script and cursive alphabets. Lots of drills and excersizes, though some are geared more towards classroom use and aren't very accessible to a beginner without help from a fluent Hebrew speaker, which I luckily had. :)

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix - J. K. Rowling

A history of Russia: from Peter the Great to Gorbachev -Mark Steinberg

Ok, so this was a sound recording from the Great Courses series most libraries carry; basically a series of college lectures on a CD and most enjoyable for a long commute. Unfortunately, my commute wasn't quite long and I was only up to Nicholas 1, Pushkin and the birth of the intelligentsia before someone put it on hold and I had to return it.

I'm fascinated with the histories of other countries as I know so little of anything outside of our own American history, and now that I've doubled my commute time I'm hoping to finish up this course and provide a meatier review.