East of Eden is my favorite book too. I'm a huge fan of Steinbeck though so I'm a bit biased towards his works. I've been slowly trawling through Team of Rivals and while it's not a policy setting book or anything of that nature, it's a fascinating look book at Lincoln, Seward, etc. and how they managed to work together. For other fiction books, The Crying of Lot 49 is a great post-modern book by Pynchon that will at times screw with your head.
Both incredible books, seconded. And Crying is only ~150 pages, though since it's Pynchon every word means something and it's not as fast a read as you'd expect. And of course East of Eden is a masterwork.I've been slowly trawling through Team of Rivals and while it's not a policy setting book or anything of that nature, it's a fascinating look book at Lincoln, Seward, etc. and how they managed to work together. For other fiction books, The Crying of Lot 49 is a great post-modern book by Pynchon that will at time screw with your head.