"Guns, Germs & Steel" by Jared Diamond - or "how the West won" (starting from the Stone age), panoramic history. See also his web article "How to get Rich" (panoramic history again, not a sales pitch - search for the author & title).

"The Road to Riches" by Peter Jay - more panoramic history.

"The Wild Swans" by Jung Chang - among other things, why the Chinese put up with the Communists (they're less appalling than the Kuomintang, who were less appalling than the Japanese).

"The Selfish Gene" by Richard Dawkins - controversially reductionist but clear explanation of evolution in terms of the survival of genes.

"The Crucible of Creation" by Simon Conway Morris - the Cambrian Explosion by a real expert.

"Discovering Relativity for Yourself" by Sam Lilley - out of print but you might get it via Amazon's 2nd-hand service.

"The Language Instinct" by Steven Pinker - argues that we have a hard-wired model of languages and without it we could not learn language skills.

"The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature" by Matt Ridley.

Sorry for lack of fiction, but I read mainly sci fi and you're already there.