A collection of both popular and lesser known biographies, autobiographies and histories of scientific figures and their discoveries. Focused primarily on biology and genetics. This is largely a collection of responses to a query on twitter.

acknowledgements.txt

Thanks to @Adrian_H, @RoryKirchner, @genetics_blog, 
          @leonidkrugliak, @Graham_Coop, @yokofakun, 
          @pathogenomenick, @caseybergman, @Jalfoldi, 
          @Paul_R_Johnston, @gknoProject, @David_Dobbs, 
          @vsbuffalo, @robinhenig, @nccomfort, 
          @GholsonLyon, @notSoJunkDNA, @neilfws, 
          @rovingpencil, @rtraborn

In addition, please refer to Casey Bergman's collection of other books:
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/xylem&tag=genetics&collection=-1

bookshelf.json

[
  	{
		"title": "The Eighth Day of Creation",
		"author": "Horace Freeland Judson",
		"topic": "History of molecular biology",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/The-Eighth-Day-Creation-Anniversary/dp/0879694785/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1376992425&sr=8-1&keywords=eight+day+of+creation"
	},
	{
		"title": "R.A. Fisher: The Life of a Scientist",
		"author": "Joan Fisher Box",
		"topic": "R.A. Fisher",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/R-A-Fisher-Probability-Mathematical-Statistics/dp/0471093009/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1376992592&sr=8-4&keywords=fisher+joan+fisher+box"
	},
	{
		"title": "Louis Pasteur",
		"author": "Patrice Debre",
		"topic": "Louis Pasteur",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Louis-Pasteur-Debr%C3%A9-Patrice-Paperback/dp/B008AUK11U/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1377045245&sr=8-5&keywords=Louis+Pasteur+by+Debre"
	},
	{
		"title": "Rosalind Franklin: The Dark Lady of DNA",
		"author": "Brenda Maddox",
		"topic": "Rosalind Franklin",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Rosalind-Franklin-The-Dark-Lady/dp/0060985089/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377045447&sr=8-1&keywords=B.+Maddox%2C+Dark+Lady+of+DNA%3B"
	},
	{
		"title": "Darwin's Origin of Species: A Biography",
		"author": "Janet Browne",
		"topic": "Charles Darwin",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Darwins-Origin-Species-Biography-Changed/dp/0871139537/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377045512&sr=8-1&keywords=Browne+on+Darwin"
	},
	{
		"title": "Einstein, Picasso: Space, Time And The Beauty That Causes Havoc",
		"author": "Arthur J. Miller",
		"topic": "The role of art on Einstein and science on Picasso and Poincar on both.",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Einstein-Picasso-Space-Beauty-Causes/dp/0465018602"
	},
	{
		"title": "The Expressiveness of the Body and the Divergence of Greek and Chinese Medicine",
		"author": "Shigehisa Kuriyama",
		"topic": "Medical history",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Expressiveness-Divergence-Greek-Chinese-Medicine/dp/0942299892"
	},
	{
		"title": "Genes, Radiation and Society: The Life and Work of H. J. Muller",
		"author": "Elof Axel Carlson",
		"topic": "H. J. Muller",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Genes-Radiation-Society-Elof-Carlson/dp/0801413044/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377045831&sr=1-1&keywords=genes%2C+radiation+and+society%22"
	},
	{
		"title": "Naturalist",
		"author": "E. O. Wilson",
		"topic": "E. O. Wilson",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Naturalist-Edward-O-Wilson/dp/1597260886/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377045932&sr=1-1&keywords=naturalist+e.+o.+wilson"
	},
	{
		"title": "Letters to a Young Scientist",
		"author": "E. O. Wilson",
		"topic": "Career advice for young scientists",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Letters-Young-Scientist-Edward-Wilson/dp/0871403773/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377045970&sr=1-2&keywords=naturalist+e.+o.+wilson"
	},
	{
		"title": "Dorothy Hodgkin: A Life",
		"author": "Georgina Ferry",
		"topic": "Dorothy Hodgkin",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Dorothy-Hodgkin-Life-Georgina-Ferry/dp/0879695943/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377046027&sr=1-1&keywords=Dorothy+Hodgkin%3A+A+Life"
	},
	{
		"title": "The Statue Within: An Autobiography",
		"author": "Francis Jacob",
		"topic": "Francis Jacob",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/The-Statue-Within-An-Autobiography/dp/0879694769"
	},
	{
		"title": "The Tragic Sense of Life: Ernst Haeckel and the Struggle over Evolutionary Thought",
		"author": "Robert J. Richards",
		"topic": "Ernst Haeckel",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/The-Tragic-Sense-Life-Evolutionary/dp/0226712168/ref=sr_1_sc_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377046143&sr=1-1-spell&keywords=The+tragic+sense+of+life%27+on+Haecke"
	},
	{
		"title": "A History of Genetics",
		"author": "A. H. Sturtevant",
		"topic": "A History of Genetics",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/History-Genetics-H-Sturtevant/dp/0879696079/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377046284&sr=1-1&keywords=A+history+of+Genetics"
	},
	{
		"title": "Thomas Hunt Morgan: Pioneer of Genetics",
		"author": "Ian Shine",
		"topic": "Thomas Hunt Morgan",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Hunt-Morgan-Bicentennial-Bookshelf/dp/0813102197/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377046353&sr=1-1&keywords=Thomas+Hunt+Morgan%3A+Pioneer+of+Genetics"
	},
	{
		"title": "The Monk in the Garden: The Lost and Found Genius of Gregor Mendel, the Father of Genetics",
		"author": "Robin Marantz Henig",
		"topic": "Gregor Mendel",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Monk-Garden-Genius-Gregor-Genetics/dp/0618127410/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377046429&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Monk+in+the+Garden%3A+The+Lost+and+Found+Genius+of+Gregor+Mendel%2C+the+Father+of+Genetics"
	},
	{
		"title": "The Tangled Field: Barbara McClintock's Search for the Patterns of Genetic Control",
		"author": "Nathaniel Comfort",
		"topic": "Barbara McClintock",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Monk-Garden-Genius-Gregor-Genetics/dp/0618127410/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377046429&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Monk+in+the+Garden%3A+The+Lost+and+Found+Genius+of+Gregor+Mendel%2C+the+Father+of+Genetics"
	},
	{
		"title": "Francis Galton: Pioneer of Heredity and Biometry",
		"author": "Michael Bulmer",
		"topic": "Francis Galton",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Francis-Galton-Pioneer-Heredity-Biometry/dp/0801874033"
	},
	{
		"title": "Nature's Oracle: The Life and Work of W. D. Hamilton",
		"author": "Ullica Segerstrale",
		"topic": "W. D. Hamilton",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Natures-Oracle-Life-Work-Hamilton/dp/019860727X"
	},
	{
		"title": "Memoir of a Thinking Radish: An Autobiography",
		"author": "Sir Peter Medawar",
		"topic": "Sir Peter Medawar",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Memoir-Thinking-Radish-Autobiography-Letters/dp/0192820834"
	},
	{
		"title": "The Common Thread: A Story of Science, Politics, Ethics and the Human Genome",
		"author": "John Sulston and Georgina Ferry",
		"topic": "History of the Human Genome Project",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/The-Common-Thread-Science-Politics/dp/0309084091"
	},
	{
		"title": "Francis Crick: Discoverer of the Genetic Code",
		"author": "Matt Ridley",
		"topic": "Francis Crick",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Francis-Crick-Discoverer-Genetic-Eminent/dp/B004IK9FKE"
	},
	{
		"title": "The Discoverers",
		"author": "Daniel J. Boorstin",
		"topic": "History of Scientific Discovery",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Discoverers-Daniel-J-Boorstin/dp/0394726251/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377046840&sr=1-1&keywords=The+Discoverers+by+Daniel+J+Boorstin"
	},
	{
		"title": "Reef Madness: Charles Darwin, Alexander Agassiz, and the Meaning of Coral",
		"author": "David Dobbs",
		"topic": "History of the debate over the origin of coral reefs",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Reef-Madness-Charles-Alexander-Agassiz/dp/0375421610/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377047011&sr=1-1&keywords=reef+madness"
	},
	{
		"title": "Cantor's Dilemma",
		"author": "Carl Djerassi",
		"topic": "a novel about science in academia and the PI-postdoc relationship",
		"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Cantors-Dilemma-Novel-Carl-Djerassi/dp/0140143599/"
	}
]

One more for you

{
"title": "Cantor's Dilemma",
"author": "Carl Djerassi",
"topic": "a novel about science in academia and the PI-postdoc relationship",
"url": "http://www.amazon.com/Cantors-Dilemma-Novel-Carl-Djerassi/dp/0140143599/"
},

Thanks @DaveMessina!

Savraj Grewal has written a really nice post on "Books that educate, stimulate and inspire" that complements the list above: http://thegrewallab.com/2013/07/28/books-that-educate-stimulate-and-inspire/