Although I have heard of and seen these books before, I have not actually read through them. I can't really comment on them as far as content goes. Now that Constantine XI has given a favorable review of the Phillips book, I might give in and read it and maybe buy it if I like it. I saw the Philips book on sale at a conference this past summer but decided not to buy it before reading reviews.
From a cursory examination of the Bartlett book, I would say that the history was probably a bit popularized. Is he a specialist in the period?
I have read and reviewed The Fourth Crusade: The Conquest of Constantinople, by Donald E. Queller and Thomas Madden. Queller was the premier historian in the study of the Fourth Crusade; Madden was his student and has taken his place (Madden's specific interest is in Doge Enrico Dandolo). It is an excellent book in which the authors do not side with the Franks or the Venetians. They manage to write with sympathy about the destruction of Byzantium as well. I highly recommend this book.
Have any of you read the following books?
Cyril Mango, Byzantium: The Empire of New Rome (1980)
A. P. Kazhdan and Giles Constable, People and Power in Byzantium: An Introduction to Modern Byzantine Studies (1982)
I to review these in a Byzantine historiography course I am taking. They were written by two of the most prominent Byzantinists that have ever been in the field. Although they aren't narrowly focused monographs, they are still quite interesting and refreshing in their approach. Instead of going straight through Byzantine history in a chronological survey of political events, the authors take a more topical approach. The Kazhdan book is especially interesting; he creates a framework based on the homo byzantinus (the average Byzantine person) and looks at the development of Byzantine culture through the primary literature, especially hagiographical evidence.