[Milpotel]

I can recommend "The song of the cell" as a starting point. If you prefer textbooks, maybe "Life: The Science of Biology". I have a translated non-english copy and besides some math issues it's a nice overview, but I'm not a biologist.

[piva00]

I second "The Song of the Cell" as a good read, as a layman I can't judge the factuality of it but as a reader it was a very enjoyable journey.