A good option is to look for winners of science book prizes. The Royal Society Winton Prize is excellent: http://www.theguardian.com/books/royal-society-science-book-... (http://www.theguardian.com/books/royal-society-science-book-prize). Some personal favourites: The Incredible Unlikeliness Of Being by Alice Roberts is a wonderful book that describes how a human being develops from conception to adulthood in minute biological detail. The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography by Simon Singh is fantastic, if a little out of date by now. Cosmos: The Story of Cosmic Evolution, Science and Civilisation by Carl Sagan.
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