One History Book to Rule Them All...

[Kishokama]

If you were to suggest, to a non-reader, a beginner history book on Japan's Sengoku Era and the Samurai and Japanese culture as a whole during the time, what would it be? I want something written well that a monolingual English speaker can understand. I would like it to be historically accurate with supreme storytelling (these two are must) and if I laugh a few times that would be icing on the cake.

I'm not picky, any suggestions

[Hazbones]

I have tons of books on the subject of Japanese history but I cannot recall any that made me laugh once, let alone a few times. Sorry, no icing...
With that said, I would recommend as a starter book: "Handbook to Life in Medieval & Early Modern Japan", by William E. Deal, ISBN: 0816056226
Handbook is well written and covers a large spectrum from Religion and Architecture, to Warriors and Tactics with a broad brush (meaning it doesn't get too deep into details on any particular subject).
I liked this book because it has a lot of tables (like court ranks), maps, lists (like all Shoguns and their reigns), and diagrams (like the structure of each era's bakufu government).
Simple yet informative.