First was The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension which is the novelization of the movie of the same name. The book touches on a number of things that were cut out of the film. The writing style is pompous; it's supposed to be written by Reno, one of Buckaroo's buddies. The book is mildly fun, but I much preferred the movie to it.
Next was Osprey Fortress #6: American Civil War Fortifications (1): Coastal Brick and Stone Forts, a topic of which I knew nothing. I guess it never occurred to me that the United States built these forts to defend against invaders from the sea...i.e. the British. There's a lot of detail here as often there is in the Osprey books. Not bad...