justme,
Warning: Soapbox is out, and I am on it!
I only have a moment here, but I'll pop in to tell you that from a Charlotte Mason perspective the history books we use in our guides are all living. They are books written by single authors passionate about their subject material (many are reprinted from an older time). They are told in narrative or story form and only use facts in the context of telling the story. They use the words to paint pictures in the mind rather than using the eye-candy type photos to tell the story.
We also use each book in a CM style read slowly over time to savor and internalize the content. Each of the books in our curriculum (except for the science textbooks used in LHFHG and Beyond) show up on every Charlotte Mason list there is! This includes Cindy's Rushton's reading lists, Penny Gardner's, Catherine Levinson's, and the Ambleside Online advisory's. So, you don't even have to take my word for it that they're living!
It took me quite awhile to figure out what a living book actually is, as so many curriculums like to drop that phrase to describe their own books. But, from studying Charlotte Mason extensively and using CM methods exclusively with my oldest son for years, I can tell you that it is rare to find a curriculum that truly uses living books in a CM-style. Either the book chosen is not truly living, or it is consumed in such a quick fashion that is not in CM-style, or there are so many books scheduled to be read that no one book can be savored in the CM-fashion.
Hope that helps!
Blessings,
Carrie