- Miricle in Philadelphia: Constitutional Convention 1787 by historian Helen Drinker Bowen This is an historically accurate chronicle of the creation of the U.S. Constitution after the Revolutionary War. My favorite part was when two rogue representatives to the convention tried to delay/disrupt the proceedings by preventing a quorum. The Sgt.-at-Arms located them sent men to fetch them, they resisted and got the living snot beat out of them, were physically transported to the Convention Hall, forced into their chairs and not allowed to get up until after the vote. 

- Holographic Universe - Talbot/Bohm - A physicist (Bohm) and an author/NDE investigator (Talbot) find unity of purpose - exploring evidence of consciousness after death, mystical conjecture as to the elementary nature of consciousness/reality and near-death experiences.


-Hyperspace - Michio Kaku - Former physicist turned pop-guru Kaku long ago gave up any pretense to being a scientist anymore, but when he was, he wrote a fairly interesting book about the concept of hyperspace (space dimensions beyond our familiar four), including recent history of popular interest in the topic. He consolidates some fairly sophisticated concepts derived from modern physics (circa the date of publication) about how n-dimensional physics might change the world. 

-Critical Path - R. Buckminster Fuller, a polymath who settled on architecture and other tangent fields as his primary vocation. He filed a lot of patents and was one of the theorists who helped form the concept of "tensegrity". He helped create the first geodesic domes for large structures like stadiums. One of the most fascinating things about this book is a concise chronology of technological achievements from the wheel to the computer chip and the innate potential for technology/capitalism to save Humanity from itself.*

* Written in 1982, one thing he got wrong (because he was misled by people in other fields whom he foolishly trusted to give him accurate information) was the danger of anthropogenic global warming. At the time he submitted Critical Path to publishers, Bucky was aging. He was sold a bill-of-goods by a cadre of well-credentialed ecoparanoid "true believers" who were Marxists first, "scientists" second, who convinced Fuller that radiative carbon forcing is a driver of potentially-catastrophic global temperature increases.(LFL: Rolls eyes) Everything else in that book is golden but ignore the nonsense about AGW. Bucky got conned by people he never dreamed would lie to him (LFL:rolls eyes) and tragically he died soon after publication of Critical Path, so he never had the chance to correct his error. Bucky was too trusting - he underestimated the mendacity of people he never dreamed would actually lie to or mislead him, (supposedly "good scientists" to whom he over-generously extended the title of "colleagues" but who were cacogens,"...not fit to be a stain on his shorts").