one of my recommendation

Cara Vivi
I'd like to recommend you to read some best books in terms of China written in English in my point of view. they all written by one of the famous chinese-american writer, Lin Yutang. he has been the most famous one bridging the china and the rest of the world almost 70 years ago, which was pretty impressive at that time. I suppose what you are learning won't cover his works since he is not on the same side of Communist party and he spent a lot of time in Taiwan. anyway, he is a great writer, the most recommended books i will make to the foreigners because the description of china and chinese is precise and real. very valuable materials to learn china even though all of them are written long time ago. but the core charactristics of chinese doesn't change at all. take a look when you are available.
by the way, this is an online reading website, where you will find a lot of works by Lin. very good website.