If I had to pick one: <i>The rise and fall of American growth: the U.S. standard of living since the Civil War</i> by Robert Gordon. The gains that we have made in the (early) 20th century are unlikely to ever be repeated, and progress in many metrics has measurably slowed or even stalled since ~1970s (likely being asymptotic). And while the Internet (classified under the Information, Communication, Technology (ICT) chapters) gave a bump in the 1990s, it's mostly been flat since 2004.<p>More economic history with <i>Slouching towards Utopia: an economic history of the twentieth century</i> by J. Bradford Delong. More economic ideas stuff in <i>Value(s): building a better world for all</i> by Mark Carney (ran the Banks of Canada and England). Also Waphsott's <i>Keynes Hayek: the clash that defined modern economics</i> and <i>Samuelson Friedman: the battle over the free market</i>.<p><i>The currency of politics: the political theory of money from Aristotle to Keynes</i> by Sefan Eich, <i>Money: the true story of a made-up thing</i> by Jacob Goldstein, and <i>The power of gold: the history of an obsession</i> by Peter Bernstein (also his <i>Against the Gods</i> on risk). Show how much of a human construct "money" is, how its meaning changes in different times and places/cultures. Should be required reading by all the 'hard money' folks (gold standard, BTC).<p><i>The good life: lessons from the world's longest scientific study of happiness</i> by Waldinger and Schultz (directors of the Harvard study). If there's one 'magic' thing for health and happiness it seems to be having good relationships (family, friends) in your life.<p><i>Religion: what it is, how it works, and why it matters</i> by Christian Smith and <i>Strange rites: new religions for a godless world</i> by Tara Burton. While many think that religion is in decline, the non-material/supernatural things that people believe in has actually shifted. And having beliefs in a super-human entity seems to be the basis of most societies and civilizations. Related, <i>The warfare between science and religion : the idea that wouldn't die</i>, a series of essays; the conflict thesis bunk, both historically and presently.<p><i>The origins of Canadian and American political differences</i> by Jason Kaufman, two seemingly-the-same neighbouring countries that have had different development paths when it comes to culture and government. (I'm Canadian.)<p>Speaking of government: <i>Civil resistance: what everyone needs to know</i> by Erica Chenoweth. Seems violence/force is generally a less effective way to affect change in society than non-violence.<p><i>The week: a history of the unnatural rhythms that made us who we are</i> by David Henkin. Seems that while seven days has been around for a long while, making it a really 'hard' structure/schedule around it is a more recent phenomenon than you'd expect.<p>If you have kids, Karen Le Billon's <i>French kids eat everything (and yours can, too)</i> and <i>Getting to YUM: the 7 secrets of raising eager eaters</i>, her husband is French and she lived there for a year and found many things done better there than US/CA. See also <i>The happiest kids in the world: how Dutch parents help their kids and themselves by doing less</i> by Acosta and Hutchison.<p><i>Flying blind: the 737 MAX tragedy and the fall of Boeing</i> by Peter Robison is an HN favourite. While we get a lot of engineer vs MBA comments, I think the bigger problem (associated with the MBA-types) is financialization, i.e., returns over everything else. Having non-engineers/MBAs can be 'fine' also long as trying to squeeze blood/money from a stone at the cost of everything else.<p>Some philosophy with Alasdair C. MacIntyre: <i>After Virtue</i> is a good starting point. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Virtue" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/After_Virtue</a>