Just finished reading the new book by Jim Baggott called HIGGS - The Invention and Discovery of the ‘God Particle’. The book discusses the recent discovery of the Higgs boson, and also does an excellent job of explaining the development of the Standard Model of particle physics (which theory is our best explanation of matter and force, and the theory of which the Higgs boson is a part). The book provides just what the general reader needs to understand the discovery of the Higgs boson and what it all means. I've written an executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2012/09/02...
Cheers,
Aaron