A Study of History by A.J. Toynbee. Picked it up last week, so far I'm liking it slightly better than Durant's approach. That said, it could be because Toynbee was translated to Polish and footnoted to hell and back, so I don't break the flow with near-constant dictionary look-ups. The English versions, both abridged (unrestricted access) and full (waitlisted), are on the archive.org. Brief Answers to the Big Questions by S. Hawking. I actually got it around Christmas from my brother, but only recently risen to the top of the pile. It's probably the lightest book by Hawking, so take it however you like. IMO it's worth recommending for his brand of optimism alone.
...what format do you have Toynbee in? I've got half of them as dead trees but the other half has always escaped me. And been expensive. It's somewhat of a white whale of mine. It's fair to say I read the Durants because Toynbee wasn't portable. As the natural bridge between Gibbon and the Durants it looked interesting (and has more good quotes than Frazier).
I'm reading the translated abridged version at the moment, but so far managed to locate the first nine volumes at various libraries located all over Warsaw. Dead tree format, some only accessible on site. Out of curiosity, which volumes are you looking for? I could look/ask around local antique shops over the next few weeks. Chances are slim, but it can't hurt.