Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea by Gary Kinder

True story about the search for a ship that sank somewhere off the East Coast in 1857 with 21 tons(!) of gold on board. It's about an entrepreneur/scientist who puts together the venture for this search (including inventing all sorts of new technology, private funding, building his team, etc.) and how they found the ship in 1989. Fascinating story, well written. I couldn't put it down.

The Making of Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes

Excellent pulitzer prize-winning book. Heavy stuff (figuratively and literally; it’s 800 pages!), but an amazing story about extraordinary people. Well-written, and remarkably easy to read.

Personal History by Katherine Graham

Graham's Pulitzer prize winning autobiography - First third is pretty boring - socialite girl, growing up and getting married. Then her husband commits suicide and she takes over running the Washington Post. Great story.

Genome by Matt Ridley

Fascinating, easy-to-read story about the human genome and the impact of mutations.

Lion’s Game by Nelson DeMille

Entertaining airplane/beach book. I read all the rest of DeMille’s prior books and enjoyed them. His more recent books have been lackluster.

Angle of Repose & Crossing to Safety by Wallace Stegner

My favorite writer. Great stories, beautifully written.

Einstein's Dreams by Alan Lightman

Short stories about Einstein day-dreaming about different concepts of time. Incredibly creative book. Also read a book of his essays Dance for Two, which I enjoyed, and his second novel, Good Benito, which I didn’t like much.

Cleopatra's Nose by Daniel Boorstin

Boorstin is a historian and was librarian of congress for years. He has written prolifically and I've enjoyed everything of his I've read (also see The Discoverers). This is a series of essays subtitled Essays on the Unexpected, in which he “uncovers the elements of accident, improvisation and contradiction at the core of American institutions and beliefs.”

The Discoverers by Daniel Boorstin

I re-read this recently, and - like the first time I read it - it was great. Essentially a history of science, but in classic Boorstin fashion, it's not a boring time-line of what happened when. He takes the time to go into detail about people and discoveries that he thinks are particularly interesting or important. And he asks (and answers) interesting questions - particularly the questions about why things didn't happen a different way.

From Beirut to Jerusalem by Thomas Friedman

Friedman was pulitzer-prize winning NYT correspondent in Beirut and then Jerusalem beween 1979 & 1989. Excellent book on the dynamics of that part of the world.

Snows of Kilimanjaro by Hemingway

Great collection of short stories.

Absolute Power by David Baldacci

I think this is the best of his novels. Though his earlier books are also good airplane reading.

Founding Brothers by Joseph Ellis

Pulitzer prize winner. Excellent, very well written book that confirms how incredibly precarious the US was at the time it was founded. In the intro, Ellis describes the founding as "an improvisational affair in which sheer chance, pure luck - both good and bad - and specific decisions made in the crucible of specific military and political crises determined the outcome." And how the framework for our political institutions that was "built in a sudden spasm of enforced inspiration and makeshift construction."

Shogun by James Clavell

Fantastic book. A "must read." (I took a class at college on feudal Japan because of this book.) The rest of that series are also good, but not as good.

Setting the World Ablaze by John Ferling

A comparative biography of three key players in the American Revolution – Washington, Adams and Jefferson.

Last Place on Earth by Roland Huntford

Great story of Amundsen and Scott’s race to the South Pole. The contrast between the very practical Amundsen (who won the race and survived the trip) and the arrogant Scott (who did neither) is amazing.

With Malice Toward None by Stephen Oates

Good, easy to read biography of Lincoln. Oates also wrote a really good, easy to read biography of Martin Luther King (Let the Trumpet Sound) that I read several years ago.

Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman by Richard Feynman

Very entertaining autobiographical anecdotes by the Nobel-prize-winning physicist who has a fantastic sense of humor and a child’s sense of playfulness. I also enjoyed What Do You Care What Other People Think?

Lords of Discipline by Pat Conroy

My favorite of Conroy's – about a kid at military school. I also really enjoyed Prince of Tides. The Water is Wide is another great Conroy story – about a year he spent teaching on an impoverished island off the coast of S. Carolina. It’s scary that there are parts of the country seemingly living in a different time - but it’s a good story and well-written. I didn’t like Beach Music much.

A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson

Laugh-out-loud-funny book about hiking the Appalachian Trail. His book about Australia (In a Sunburned Country) is also good, but not as good.