[Teraflame]

For non-fiction mostly, I never really read them at all. Also what is the best american history book? Or books, to balance out the biases in their point of views.

 

[nabwong]

Just off the top of my head...

Freakonomics - Steven D. Levitt & Stephen J. Dubner

Guns, Germs & Steel - Jared Diamond

Collapse - Jared Diamond

Confessions of an Economic Hitman - John Perkins

Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

A day in the life of Ivan Denisovich - Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (fiction/non-fiction)

 

[Omega]

Try a Stephen Hawking book. A Brief History of Time and Universe in a Nutshell are both good for perusing with coffee/beer in hand.

Oh wait, did you want a book on political history?

 

[flashnolan]

Scents of Eden - I had to read it in college. It is about the beginnings of our modern spices. It is based off of fact and has a playful fiction feel to it.

 

[jonathanjong]

On evolution: Richard Dawkins's "Blind Watchmaker." Also, read anything by Stephen J. Gould. His popular works are brilliant, though sometimes his biology and philosophy of biology are a little suspect. No less than Dawkins's... (I don't recommend either of Selfish Gene or Extended Phenotype unless you're familiar with evo-bio and can assess his arguments well).

On evolutionary developmental biology: Sean Carroll's "Endless Forms Most Beautiful"

On philosophy of biology: Kim Sterelny and Paul Griffith's "Sex and Death."

On cognitive science and philosophy of mind: Daniel Dennett and Douglas Hofstaeder's (Eds.) "Mind's I."

On epistemology and philosophy of science: Alan Musgrave's "Common Sense, Science, and Scepticism."

On Christian theology: Daniel Migliore's "Faith Seeking Understanding."

For Christian sermons: Frederick Buechner's "Secrets in the Dark."

More Christian stuff: Anything by Frederick Buechner (e.g., Beyond Words) and Adrian Plass.

On the historical Jesus: E. P. Sanders's "The Historical Figure of Jesus" (Sanders is an agnostic.)

On the Bible: James Kugel's "How to Read the Bible." Or Jacques Berlinerblau's "The Secular Bible." (The former is an Orthodox Jew, the latter is an atheist.)

For arguments for atheism: J. L. Mackie's "Miracle of Theism." (Stay far, far away from Dawkins here... Yes, Mackie's an atheist.)

I think these are on the top of my list of non-fiction works and authors. Not too much political history, I'm afraid. Lots of science and religion, from different perspectives, which is good, I think.

 

[SiriuslyCold]

+1 Bill Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything

 

[guyx1992]

American History?
You can read Band of Brothers / Steven Ambrose.
But if you're open to other genres I recommend "Night" by Elie Wiesel, about a 15 year old teenager that is taken to labor camps during the Holocaust. It's very short (110~ pages), and quite cheap. I got it for 9$ on eBay including over-seas shipping.

 

[G-man]

A book, that i feel is quite mind altering is Stiglitz's Globalization and its Discontents. Do not read freakonomics, or any of the other pop-econ stuff. it is a waste of time. also, any Friedman book is good, for for alternative points of view(the guy invented monetarism after all) and for some political views. Most bookshops list him under politics, even though it is economics. never got why.
alternatively, you might also want to have a look at the God Delusion, but it does tend to get boring.

 

[Uncle Erik]

One of my favorite non-fiction books is "Kon-Tiki" by Thor Heyerdahl. Great adventure writing. Once they get underway you won't be able to put it down. I regularly give this book as a gift - everyone loves it.

 

[ppxnouse]

One of my favourite non-fiction books the last months was Richard David Prechts "Who Am I – And If So, How Many?"
It is a german author, but there will be an english version soon .