Here are the ones I'd be willing to recommend, in reverse chronological order of when I read them. I read 59 total. Listen to books on tape while working out has maybe doubled my reading rate.
Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy - Great book on how the Mongol Empire came to be, who Genghis was, and it put the whole thing in perspective for me in a useful way.
The Knowledge: How to Rebuild Our World from Scratch - What it says on the tin. Actually a good overview how some important technologies interrelate.
Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction - How to be wrong less often. Based on the Good Judgement Project results.
The Three-Body Problem - Decent enough science fiction but extra interesting because it's science fiction from a different culture.
Ignition!: An informal history of liquid rocket propellants - A history of things that go boom. Engaging writing and I learned things about chemistry.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant - I'm nominating this for a Hugo. It tells you it's going to stab you in the gut but when it does you don't see it coming. Plus high quality scheming and speculation on economics, society, and empire.
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps - Excellent use of voice and an overall good book.
Bloom - Made my skin crawl in places and also was good at making you feel a radical change in perspective.
Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed - An interesting perspective on certain aspects of government. A bit too negative for the topic, the factors outlined are also why commercial economies were able to develop more centralized economies than agrarian ones in the early modern era.
Political Order and Political Decay: From the Industrial Revolution to the Globalization of Democracy - Quite good book on bureaucracy though not as excellent as the previous book on the origins of states.
Last First Snow - It's always great to read books about the struggles between people with sympathetic motivations.
The Unwelcome Warlock - The latest in a series of fantasy books where people use magic in creative and sensible ways.
Asteroid Mining 101: Wealth for the New Space Economy -Mostly about all the different sorts of asteroids.
Seveneves - Neal Stephenson's latest. If you like his books read it but maybe skip the last 1/3 after the timeskip.
Elon Musk: Tesla, SpaceX, and the Quest for a Fantastic Future - Wow he did a lot of cool stuff.
Stories of Your Life and Others - Brilliant and poetic short stories.
Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life - Some interesting perspective on materialism.
Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life - Best science book I've read in a while! Shows why mitochondria matter, the fundamental limits of prochariotic life, and several important ways mitochondria influence again and evolution.
Blue Remembered Earth - Awesome near futureish book that does well at imagining a future that isn't just a linear extrapolation but is still believable.
A Key, an Egg, an Unfortunate Remark - Not enough pacifist badass grandmothers in urban fantasy.
Quantum Computing since Democritus - I understand QM much better now.