Graphic Novels are great for short entry level reads

• Transhuman Genetic engineering and human augmentation

A mockumentary about the future, where genetically engineered humans are created by rival companies in an attempt to corner the market under the guise of bettering the world.

• Y: The Last Man Post apocalyptic sci fi

This is the saga of Yorick Brown—the only human survivor of a planet-wide plague that instantly kills every mammal possessing a Y chromosome

• Surrogates Dystopian future with cybernetics

The year is 2054, and life has been reduced to a data feed. The fusing of virtual reality and cybernetics has ushered in the era of the surrogate, a new technology that lets users interact with the world without ever leaving their homes. It's a perfect world, and it's up to Detectives Harvey Greer and Pete Ford of the Metro Police Department to keep it that way. But to do so they'll need to stop a techno-terrorist bent on returning society to a time when people lived their lives instead of merely experiencing them.

• The Windup Girl, and Brave New World/1984?, would work in the current political and social atmosphere as well.

• The Illustrated Man, and Asimov short story collections would also be tops for people that read for the human elements (and don't mind a bit of sci fi tossed in)

• Armor for sci fi (future wars/military angle)