The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan

I was pleasantly surprised at how much I liked this book. Sagan was BIG when I was growing up. So, it was fascinating to read his stuff. I have also been into brain science lately. So, it coincided with what I am interested in right now. 

Here is why James Mustich thinks it should be one of the 1000 Books You Read Before You Die:

Although he had not yet achieved the fame that was to come with his documentary television series Cosmos, Carl Sagan was already an astronomer of some renown when he published The Dragons of Eden, his first book to venture freely beyond the astronomical realm. Employing his celebrated gift for lucid explication of complex scientific matters, he produces a breathtaking overview of the nature and development of human intelligence. In the more than four decades since the publication of The Dragons of Eden, some of Sagan's theorizing has surely been overtaken by new research. But the bold sweep of the book's perception still opens unforgettable vistas of knowledge and imagination.