Jonathan Livingston Seagull by Richard Bach (1970)

This is a strange short book with lots of photographs about a seagull, who decides that there is more to life, than fighting over scraps of food, and perfects his flying instead and comes to know that Heaven is reached when one achieves Perfection, and to do so you are the one who needs to take the steps. Life can and should be more than following the "Flock". A classic.

The Big Con: The Story of the Confidence Man by David Maurer (1999)

This is a reprint of a book published in 1940 by a linguist studying the language of con(fidence) man, and who was getting really familiar with their methods and with them in person. Details are provided for the three big cons (the wire, the rag, and the payoff), where the mark is sent (to get the money and bring it back), as contrasted to short cons (like the smack, the tat, the hot-seat, the tip, the money box, the last turn, the huge duke, the wipe, and others), where (mostly) only the money the mark has on him is taken. The characters and action described inspired the movie The Sting. The book also describes how local judicial and law enforcement were on the take, resulting in no prosecution and lenient sentences (if any at all). There were also special methods of cooling the mark, making sure that the law enforcement is not involved at all. The book is somewhat dated, as the feds were cracking down on many of these scams as mail frauds and many of the con men moved over to the stock fraud, as a more profitable passtime. As the book states, in many of these cons, an honest man is wanted to complete a dishonest transaction (which should remind one to the current Nigerian scams), and the smarter the person is, he maybe more suspectible to be hooked.

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Sex, Drugs and DNA: Science's Taboos Confronted by Michael Stebbins (2006)

A leading scientist offers a "scientific" perspective on things happening around us, including why one needs to be very dedicated to wanting to become a scientist (how tenured positions seem to be a thing of the past, grant monies are becoming extinct, and so on), how politicians and the public have no basic understanding on stem cell research and cloning, sex education and discrimination, genetically modified food (and in particular how it was being done for centuries by plant and animal breeders), on race and race relations (including race specific drug treatments), global warming, biological and chemical weapons (and how little is and maybe can be prepared for them), the sad state of drug and healthcare in the USA, and the dismal state of science education (with thoughts on Intelligent Design), it is a wonder if anybody chooses to become a scientist after all this .... A good read.

Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris (2004)

This excellent audio book read by the author himself. The stories are based on personal and family experiences, and surely you will know David and his family well after you finished listening, maybe even too well. Not to be missed.