Sci-fi about Identity

• Axiomatic by Greg Egan
• The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi (trilogy)
• Genetic Soldier
• Saturn’s Children
• Nexus

Sci-Fi To Understand The Future

• Daemon by Daniel Suarez (and sequel)
• Halting State by Charles Stross (and sequel)
• Manna by Marshall Brain
• Termination Shock by Stephenson (Snow Crash, Cryptonomicon also worthy but older)
• Parable of the Sower by Butler
• Oryx and Crake by Atwood (trilogy)

Non-fiction about The Nature Of The Universe

• The New Science Of Strong Materials, or Why Things Don’t Fall Apart by J.B. Gordon
• Dance to the Tune of Life by Denis Noble
• Quantum Computing Since Democritus by Scott Aaronson
• The Mind is Flat by Nick Chater
• The Sports Gene by David Epstein
• How Emotions Are Made by Lisa Feldman Barrett

Romantic Fantasy

• Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell
• The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin
• The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
• Uprooted by Naomi Novik
• A Deadly Education by Naomi Novik (trilogy)

The New Metaphysics

• Sex Ecology Spirituality by Ken Wilber
• The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch
• Active Inference by Thomas Parr, Giovanni Pezzulo, Karl J. Friston
• Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig
• A New Philosphy of Society
• Tempo by Venkatesh Rao
• The origins of Order
• A Pattern Language
• Rationality: From AI to Zombie

Introspection and Extrospection

• Games People Play
• Finite and Infinite Games
• A Little Book on the Human Shadow
• The Time Paradox
• The Untethered Soul
• Introspection by Visakan Vishnamurphy
• Soulcraft by Bill Plotkin
• The Elephant and the Brain
• Attached
• We Do
• Nonviolent Communication
• The Mind Illumniated

Education

• Range by David Epstein
• The Cult Of Smart by Fredrik deBoer
• The Smartest Kids In The World by Amanda Ripley
• Atomic Habits by James Clear
• Trillion Dollar Coach by Eric Schmidt, Jonathan Rosenberg, Alan Eagle
• Moonwalking With Einstein by Joshua Foer
• Far From The Tree by Andrew Solomon
• Random Family by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc
• Think Again by Adam Grant

Material History

• The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money And Power by Daniel Yergin
• Cable Cowboy by Mark Robichaux
• Freedom’s Forge by Arthur Herman
• Dream Land by Sam Quinones
• An Economic Interpretation of the Constitution of the United States of America by Charles A. Beard
• The Panic of 1819: Reactions and Policies by Murray Rothbard
• Money: The Unauthorized Biography by Felix Martin
• How We Got To Now by Steven Johnson

Institutional Formation

• Nixonland by Rick Perlstein
• Violence and Social Orders by Douglass C. North, John Joseph Wallis, Barry R. Weingast
• The Invention of Russia by Arkady Ostrovsky
• The discovery of France by Graham Robb
• Seeing Like a State by James C. Scott
• Against the Grain by James C. Scott
• A History Of Future Cities
• Why Nations Fail

Actually New Ideas For Governance

• Legal Systems Very Different From Ours
• Radical Markets

Intellectual Scenes

• Exact Thinking in Demented Times by Karl Sigmund