Renaissance Europe: Age of Recovery and Reconciliation Book

I never considered reading a history book and enjoying it. However, taking my first history class this year at University prescribed this text for the 1300 - 1600 period of history in Europe, and I found it very engaging by the end of the class. I'm amazed over and over how the Renaissance connects, even if tangentially, to modern reality. (Well I suppose it is the technical beginning of the "modern" period...but still, it is very unexpected.) For a class that I wanted to drop on more than one occassion, I am pleasantly surprised by little situations like taking photographs for an Inn in Georgetown PEI, noticing art books on the Pitti and Uffuzzi Palaces and while at dinner with the proprietors discussing Renaissance art, and the history of both families. It is probably a rare example, but kind of nice in a cultured way. A far more practical example has emerged in my American Literature class - the Renaissance basically incorporates the voyages of the discovery into the New World. My American Literature class starts with the writings of different conquistadors and Christopher Columbus (a Venetian sailor...not actually from Spain as most think). The Royalists who come to America in the search for gold and the Puritan Europeans escape from persecution creates a contentious American culture that plays itself out over the next 200 years. This history text has literally opened up a new view of European (and now American) culture.