You might enjoy the Very Short Introduction series, which is what it sounds like: short popular-level introductions to broad-ish topics, written by academics. Examples, to give a sense of the range:
Entries are about 120 pages. Quality varies by the author—some can slip too far into academic jargon, but by and large they’re decent (and cheap enough that it’s no big loss if one turns out to be low-quality).
You might enjoy the Very Short Introduction series, which is what it sounds like: short popular-level introductions to broad-ish topics, written by academics. Examples, to give a sense of the range:
Global economic history
Islam
Human evolution
Mathematics
Documentary film
Entries are about 120 pages. Quality varies by the author—some can slip too far into academic jargon, but by and large they’re decent (and cheap enough that it’s no big loss if one turns out to be low-quality).