Watch out for these new non-fiction favorites

diverse than one might have thought.

“Young Washington — How Wilderness and War Forged America’s Founding Father” by Peter Stark (Ecco, 500 pages, $35) May 1

George Washington’s early career serving as a young British officer in the wilderness of the Ohio Valley depicts some aspects of his personality that could surprise you. He was immature, naive and fairly selfabsorbed. And he had some incredible adventures.

“The Black Prince — England’s Greatest Medieval Warrior” by Michael Jones (Pegasus, 488 pages, $29.95) May 1

Edward of Woodstock was a 14th century English prince and the eldest son of King Edward III. He became known as “The Black Prince” and his victory in 1356 over the French at Poitiers marked England’s most dominant period during the Hundred Years War. He ruled over Aquitaine, a large portion of west and southwest France.

“Those Turbulent Sons of Freedom — Ethan Allen’s Green Mountain Boys and the American Revolution” by Christopher S. Wren (Simon and Schuster, 286 pages, $26) May 8

This revisionist history of Ethan Allen and his Green Mountain Boys gives readers a portrait of a band of ruffians who did some good things during the American Revolution but perhaps were not quite the heroic warriors of legend. George Washington kept his distance from them.