Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything, I highly recommend.

Also: Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire, Walter Mosley's R.L.'s Dream, Anne Ross' Folklore of the Scottish Highlands, John Myers Myers Silverlock (if you can find it), Farley Mowat's The Farfarers, Leonard Shlain's Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time and Light, William Horwood's The Stonor Eagles...

To name just a few