From my understanding of the style I believe The Gene: An Intimate History by Siddhartha Mukherjee is a similar take on genetics.
It stays fairly high level as it doesn't require a molecular biology degree, but Mukherjee gives a fantastic primer on many of the concepts in genetics in a deeply interesting and human fashion. It's always refreshing when non-fiction books manage to weave a narrative throughout in a way that feels natural.
Completely different subject, taught in a way it builds up.
Still worth reading imo. Reading the book and then reading about its errors seems as good a way of any as getting a big picture view of human history.
-"Gödel, Escher, Bach" by Douglas Hofstadter is more whimsical and meandering, but has a similar technique of building from the ground up.
-"The Code Book" by Simon Singh is more of a history book, but it has some of the same "feel" in the progression of complexity, even if it will not truly teach you much cryptography.
-The Feynman lectures on physics, which are probably as close as you'll get in tone: https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech.edu/
-And this is a video, not a book, but it stands out to me as a fantastic piece of science communication that is worthy of mention: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKqof77pKBc (34C3 - Free Electron Lasers)