Le nozze di Cadmo e Armonia, by Roberto Calasso

A vast, expansive book that tackles all of Greekness: its myths, its divinities. It begins at the beginning, and then digs even further back and deeper into myth. A recurring phrase at the start of chapters, often held together by thin threads of assonance, is "How did all this begin?"

How to lie with Charts, by Alberto Cairo

Alberto teaches us how to lie with the infographic illusion of scientific data. If there's a number, we're inclined to believe. It all seems "data driven," it all seems impartial. Here we learn the rhetoric of visualizations, we learn how a narrative is masked by presenting it as the only rational one. You learn it to dismantle those who want to deceive us, you learn it to tell the truth.