Reddit reviews The Elements: A Very Short Introduction

Stuff Matters by Mark Miodownik is a nice way of looking at chemistry from a materials standpoint and isn't completely bogged down in diagrams of formulas.

The Chemists' War: 1914-1918 by Martin Freemantle shows how chemistry changed warfare forever and is published by the Royal Society of Chemistry

The very short introduction to the elements and the very short introduction to molecules by Philip Ball are interesting reads that will provide a good basis of where to develop your understanding.

Chemistry is a very broad discipline so i wouldn't say this list is exhaustive.

You might want to investigate physical chemistry if you're into thermodynamics, or organic chemistry if you like lipids and plastics, pharmaceuticals if you want to be useful, and then there is inorganic chemistry if you don't.

I hope you find something that resonates with you.

Civil engineering to shipbuilding: Structures and The new science of strong materials, by J.E. Gordon. These are incredibly enlightening.

Physics (also some chemistry and biology): It Must Be Beautiful: Great Equations of Modern Science is a collection of essays by great scientists - among others, it contains a very insightful discussion on the birth of the Schroedinger equation, which is rather different from the usual stories of cats in boxes, chicken crossing the road, gods playing dice, and the like.

Chemistry: The Elements: A Very Short Introduction, by Philip Ball.

Biochemistry: Chance and necessity, by Jacques Monod. Seems it's out of print, I guess my knowledge of the field is a bit out-of-date. There must be some other book out there that explains elegantly protein folding and enzymatic regulation, which are the base mechanisms of living matter.