For non-fiction I'd like to nominate Thomas Sowell's Basic Economics. The main reason I recommend this is it's (shamefully) the only Sowell book I actually own, but it does a very good job of covering the basic principles of economics in a simple and easy to understand manner, while also going into some degree of detail on the practical effects of varying economic policies and philosophies.

I have a fiction suggestion that I may post later, but I felt like the non-fiction options were lacking at the moment.