Truman by David McCullough Buy new: $14.96 / Used from: $2.49 How to grow up to be a hero without noticing along the way.

The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Buy new: $9.00 / Used from: $2.96

Involving ethnic fiction from, for most of us, a completely exotic culture.

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union: A Novel by Michael Chabon
Buy new: $17.79 / Used from: $10.25

The voice of his generation, I suspect. Maybe mine too.

Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins
Buy new: $11.20 / Used from: $3.91

How to write an extremely complex, thoughtful story and make it read like some guy casually spouting off at you through the night.

Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson
Buy new: $21.12 / Used from: $8.50

New information woven in with the subject’s innovative thought processes; the first Einstein book I’ve read that isn’t either an insult to my intelligence or completelty opaque.

Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barack Obama
Buy new: $8.97 / Used from: $7.48

Perhaps not foreign policy “experience,” but indicative of a new way of looking at our place in the world.

Younger Next Year: Live Strong, Fit, and Sexy—Until You’re 80 and Beyond by Chris Crowley
Buy new: $10.36 / Used from: $7.50

Positively motivating.

The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul Krugman
Buy new: $17.13 / Used from: $15.25

Like a poet screaming wisdom at the wilderness.

The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene
Buy new: $11.53 / Used from: $5.00

“Life is a deep well,” said the sage and I looked at him like he was from Pluto. “You mean life is not a deep well?” he asked.

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
Buy new: $10.87 / Used from: $6.65

Maybe practical, maybe not, but one of the rare sources of new ideas. Gladwell is a theoretical sociologist.

Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World by Tracy Kidder
Buy new: $10.85 / Used from: $5.10

Why someone would want to grow up to be a hero.

Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die by Chip Heath
Buy new: $16.47 / Used from: $13.50

Getting an insouciant Universe to notice.

By an Amazon.com customer