I, Claudius by Robert Graves, a book written as an autobiography about the fourth Roman emperor, the very unlikely one at that. For roman history buffs, it is great. The family tree of all the characters can be too much for some, but I enjoy it a lot.

The History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, a highly opinionated ride through the entire(?) western philosophy.

Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky which is a sci-fi novel about a lot of stuff, including sentient spiders.

Maybe too wide a range of titles