I was grateful to have a copy of Brian Greene's 'The Fabric of the Cosmos' given to me as a gift. So far, I have read through to Chapter 3 and can't say enough good things about this book.
I have been working through other texts trying to understand relativity, quantam mechanics, life - the universe and well... everything. It looks like this is the book that will deliver the goods. The author has a special talent. He can impart the knowledge using examples from common experience to enhance understanding of the abstract.
Simply superb!