Historical fiction/nonfiction for 14 year old boy

Hey all, my 14 year old son has an…interesting relationship with reading. Sometimes he loves it, sometimes it feels like a a chore to him. We've tried to hone in on genres in which he's interested, and I think we're slowly figuring it out. I've got two questions, one on specific recommendations and a second that's more general:

• Can you suggest any good historical fiction/nonfiction boys for this age range? Topic doesn't matter too, too much, but I believe he prefers history with which he's more familiar, specifically American history. He also enjoys reading biographies of athletes.
• My second question is how can we continue to encourage this dude to read without making it feel like a burden/chore for him? We have our kids end their day with 15ish minutes of nightly reading. It's worked really well for our 12 year old daughter, but the 14 yo son has been pushing back lately. This may be best served for r/Parenting, but perhaps some of you book lovers have some experience with it as well.

Thanks!