Sapiens: a Brief History of Humankind / Yuval Noah Harari, 443 pp.

A look at the arc of human development with a point of view that weaves biology, anthropology, history, and, in truth, other disciplines I probably can't even name. Effectively, Harari shows us our species as if he were a far-wiser life form from another galaxy, and after reading this, I will never think of human life in quite the same way.  Harari divides human history into revolutions: the cognitive, which saw great leaps forward in behavior and our spread across the planet; the agricultural, the scientific, the industrial, the information, and the biotechnological.  We've all heard these categories before, but it's Harari's analysis of the how and why of each of these stages that make this such a fresh and exciting read.  He is an original thinker and a first-rate writer; if you appreciated Guns, Germs and Steel you need to read Sapiens.

Thanks to my friend John for nagging me to read this!