I plan my own CM education most years (did SCM one year and loved it…but I have this book problem, too!) I look at book lists from places like SCM, MFW, Sonlight, and Heart of Dakota and look at the books I have available and books I can find inexpensively. Then I divide the year into 3 12 week terms. So, last year looked like this (we did Rome to the Reformation period): term 1: Rome. Family read alouds included The Living Tabernacle (story of the fall of Jerusalem) and St. Patrick. Assigned reading for older kids were books like City, Martyr of the Catacombs, St. Paul and Mystery of the Roman Ransom. Then, we moved to the middle ages and read books like The Door in the Wall, The Viking Bow, and Lief Ericson. Then we moved to the time of the Reformation and read books like The Beggars Bible, Spy for the Night Riders and Along Came Galileo.
That way, I can use the books I really want to use and we’ve really enjoyed doing it this way.
We have never used Master Books history, but my experience with Master Books has been that I want to love them, but we really haven’t. I like a lot of the books they publish, but the curriculum has just not been loved here. My oldest son used one of their science programs last year. He enjoyed the reading material, but hated the book work part. And he also did their Logic course and was bored almost to tears. I ended up having to read it out loud to him just to keep him kind of engaged. We haven’t liked their math, either. But, some people love it! But we just design our own program and it keeps working.