If you’re looking for books on Gedolim, but don’t want to read a very long biography, I highly recommend ‘Inside Their Homes’. It’s an Artscroll book, ghost written by Nachman Seltzer. The author is identified simply as Reb Binyomin, but he was in Mir in my day, so I know who he is. He gives us a close up view of the Gedolim of our generation, which one does not necessarily get from the ordinary biographies.
Another book, Jewish but not a frum book which is very interesting, is ‘The Prime Ministers’ by Yehuda Avner. The author was a senior Israeli diplomat originally from Manchester, UK. He was personal secretary to four Israeli Prime Ministers, and has documented his experiences during the tumultuous times. This is from the marketing blurb, “It is an insider account of Israeli politics from the founding of the Jewish State to the near-present day. It reveals stunning details of life-and-death decision-making, top-secret military operations and high level peace negotiations. The Prime Ministers brings readers into the orbits of world figures, including Menachem Begin, Yitzhak Rabin, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger, Yasser Arafat, Margaret Thatcher, Princess Diana and the Lubavitcher Rebbe…”