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Two non-fiction books that stayed with me though I read them years ago:
Backlash by Susan Faludi, on the backlash against advances in women's condition in the U.S. The main subject of the book is not as outdated as one might think, in fact I think it's still very relevant. But what I found most interesting maybe, was the description of a press that was no longer driven by a motivation to reveal the truth, but to present a version of the truth that they think will sell, and therefore to shape our beliefs based on what they think these beliefs are.
Violence and the Sacred by René Girard, followed by Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World, which extends his theory to include parts that he didn't include in the first book. I don't "believe" in his theory in the way he seems to (as a kind of unifying theory of human society and religion) but I still think it has many very interesting insights, and it has kept me thinking all those years. I've been planning to re-read the first book for a while (I read the second one fairly recently but the first was more than 20 years ago I think).
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