If Charles Darwin sprang from his grave,

I would give him this fine book to bring him up to speed."
-Praise for Life Ascending

I'm currently reading a great book called Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution by Nick Lane (actually Dr. Nick, if credentials matter). For those of you interested in evolution, whether you believe in it or not, I think this is a great read. Unfortunately for zombie Darwin and non-scientists alike, the book assumes at least a basic familiarity with cell and molecular biology, genetics, evolution, taxonomy, chemistry, and paleontology. However, it's still written in language that is fairly simple, yet eloquent and interesting. His brief conceptual descriptions should be enough for most people to get the gist, and if not, 5 minutes on wikipedia would go a long way.

Though the book isn't specifically targeted at creationists, most of his "inventions" (life itself, photosynthesis, sight, conciousness, etc.) are items often cited by creationists as being "irreducibly complex" and/or impossible sans a creator. Because of this, he tends to focus on how each trait could or might have evolved in a stepwise manner, with each step being chemically, energetically, genetically, and evolutionarily possible and favorable. He usually, after describing how it might have evolved, goes on to describe how it changed the world dramatically, paving the way for the changes to come. He almost makes it seem easy for evolution to have led from random organic molecules to microbes to the complex eukaryotes (plants, animals, fungi, and others) we know and love.

So, whether you're a trained scientist looking to brush up on recent research (up to 2009), someone with a casual interest in evolution, or even a creationist with an axe to grind, I would highly recommend it.