michcat:
Nixonland. Read.
The Woodward books on Bush and the many 9/11, Iraq War, and torture books (Jane Mayer, Suskind, Ricks etc.) seem like overkill to me at this point, but were very interesting when read more contemporarily and coupled with my periodical/blog reading.
The only "political" non-fiction books that I've read that stand the test of time (and my horrible memory) are fiction or much less "of the moment" in terms of their focus: (Orwell, Hunter S. Thompson, Abby Hoffman, Steinbeck, Dalton Trumbo). I think that Israeli David Grossman's book Death as a Way of Life: Israel Ten Years after Oslo is outstanding (and pretty short!) and Palestinain Mourid Barghouti's I Saw Ramallah is also excellent if you're looking for depressing/heart wrenching (and short!).
Kafka's short stories are really incredible too. Your library should have a collection, be sure to read The Trial and The Metamorphisis.