Other Minds, about cephalopods, is written by a philosopher, not a biologist or neuroscientist, so take it with a grain of salt[1]. I would also recommend _Octopus_ by Anderson, Mather, and Wood, who are actual biologists.
[1] Specifically, cephalopods are very intelligent compared to other invertebrates, but that's it. It's interesting because they represent a parallel evolution of greater intelligence outside the vertebrates, and because what they can do with that intelligence is greatly enhanced by their physical capabilities. Give a fish a human brain and it will have trouble twisting a lid open.
the books are heavily illustrated, don’t shy away from the real stuff, but are still the most readable scientific publishing i have seen. whoever was the editor or manager of the series is a genius of publishing. john wheeler, julian schwinger, steven weinberg, peter atkins, and more can be found as authors. i am personally trying to collect them all.
It does cover a history of SETI, but goes into a lot of the theory that is generally beyond a bit of what I've seen discussed before in popsci. I thought I knew the subject very well, but learned a lot of new things.
Atom Land is pretty good, though there are some problems with the analogy. If you use it with the internet as a supplement and are a bit forgiving regarding bad analogies (as with PG essays), it's great.
