Mary Catelli's Erraticly Updated and Exceedingly Ill-Organized Journal

Georgian Delights by J.H. Plumb

A study of pastimes in Georgian England. On occasion he overdoes the break with times before, but it was certainly an era of great change. Publishing exploded, including books with instructions on music, helpful with the greatly increased availability of instruments. The rise of subscription balls (held during the winter at the full moon). Touring -- this is divided within the country, and the Grand Tour. Inside the country, you got all sorts of changes. For the first time, the sublime or picturesque wilds were something to be sought up, up to climbing Snowdon in Wales. Country homes were visited to see all the modern marvels, and you visited the newest sites of industry, such as the Wedgewood factories, though you preferred the sublime such as forges and mines.

The second part is heavily illustrations of the era showing the elements.

Ginseng Diggers: A History of Root and Herb Gathering in Appalachia by Luke Manget

While this does cover some of the botany and ecology of the plant -- and other gathered plants -- it is chiefly focused on the development of the trade in crude botanicals.

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The Romance of the London Directory by Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley

About names. Shorter than his other two works I've read and crossing much of the same grounds. His historical assertions often show the time written (19th century), and his claim that the common use of Robert was all derived from Robin Hood is -- implausible at best. (Much more likely that it was the common use that pulled in the outlaw as well, especially since he does, despite the author, appear to be unreal.)

But lots of discussion of names, both personal and surnames.

Curiosities of Puritan Nomenclature by Charles Wareing Endell Bardsley

A somewhat broader treatment, since it starts with the Norman Conquest, to set the stage. Witty in a dry academic manner. Sometimes goes into lists of instances of name to prove their use. A 19th century work so limited to before that time.
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Ginseng and Borderland: Territorial Boundaries and Political Relations Between Qing China and Choson Korea, 1636-1912 by Seonmin Kim

A discussion of various issues about the borderlands of China and Korea. And it was a borderland, theoretically unsettled. (Dealings with the rest of the world helped push toward a border, which other nations had, but it doesn't get deep in those dealings.)

Ginseng, its licensed gathering and poaching, was an enormous issue in that. It was greatly valued, as long as it was wild. Cultivated ginseng was treated as if poached, which complicated issues.

Also such thing as the value for peasants of being on the road where Korean tribute traveled, how the Qing dynasty didn't regard ginseng as distinctively Korean, and more.

The Domestic Revolution: How the Introduction of Coal into Victorian Homes Changed Everything by Ruth Goodman

In London, they were using coal for heating and cook during the Elizabethean era. It appears to have started then, too, and been very quick; a Star Chamber proceeding calmly states that "sea coal" (coal brought by sea) is the ordinary fuel of everyone. And it spread throughout the land. It had a lot of consequences.
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Worlds of Wonder, Days of Judgment: Popular Religious Belief in Early New England by David D. Hall

Covering popular belief in New England. Much more the people in the congregation than those who left it. At least, figuratively. "Horse-shed" members would go out to the horse-shed between the two sermons and gossip instead of attending Sunday school. . .

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Religions of the United States in Practice, Volume 1 by Colleen McDannell

An array of documents. Seemed a bit of a grabbag. Hymns, prayers, services. Accounts of lives and visions. A witness to the Green Corn Ceremony of the Muskogees. Disputes about cremation, and the licitness of smallpox innoculation.

Invisible Agents: Women and Espionage in Seventeenth-Century Britain by Nadine Akkerman

A study revolving about the English Civil War. I found it particularly interesting in terms of spycraft, and the frequent bumbling incompetence, and the discussions about folding letters (which could make it impossible to open without revealing your tampering), and stenography (all the more important in that owning a cypher key was illegal).

The Social Life of Books: Reading Together in the Eighteenth-Century Home by Abigail Williams

All sorts of eighteenth century reading.  Works on elocution, lewd anecdotes to the Family Editions of works from Shakespeare onward, the problems with selling Shakespeare plays that hadn't actually been acted for over a century, the dangers of eyestrain and how having someone read aloud could protect your sight, reading associated knickknacks,  and more.