Authors like Thomas Pynchon (Gravity's Rainbow), Douglas Hofstadter (Gödel, Escher, Bach), Richard Powers (The Gold Bug Variations) come from an engineering or physics background, and treat humanities subjects from that perspective. I don't know that they're exactly what you're asking for in your second paragraph, but they're sort of 'STEM-friendly' mixes of fiction and non-fiction dealing with how people are.

Generally, I'd recommend picking a single, narrower topic, and a respected work on that subject. After that, follow your inclination. I wouldn't try to compile a list beforehand.

I will say that your question reminded me of a time in college when my best friend, an Physics Ph.D. candidate at the time, had a similar idea to yours. It was 2001, and the Nobel prize the year before had gone to Gao Xingjian, a chinese writer who was famous for a book called Soul Mountain. My friend, who had never shown any inclination whatsoever to read literature, who my mom always called Dr. Spock because of his general approach to life, one day said, look, I don't know anything about this; I'm going to read this book and see what it's about," and he did. He still talks about how great it was.