What nonfiction books are just absolute standouts on their given topic or in their particularly field?

For instance Bill Bryson’s “A Short History of Nearly Everything” absolutely unlocked (for me) what I might call Science History. James Gleick’s “The Information” did it for information theory.

“A Pattern Language” by Christopher Alexander or “Salt” by Mark Kurlansky did similar things for architecture and history.

What about other fields? Design? Math? Art? Botany?

Do you all have stand out nonfiction books that redefined how you saw something?

by Capitap