A lot depends on what your degree is on. Philosophy? History? En, Fr... Literature? Economics? Biology? Physics? .... Today, there is less generality and more specialism. Each has its own vocabulary. Some rather general books you can find online and they are marvelously written.

If you are heading for academic research, you might need to read more articles in relation to your specialty. I was informed theconversation.com consists of a large number of semi-academic articles to study in which you may see how a context is described by experienced researchers in academic terms. 

yes, novels with deep meaning, you should try them 

you can try some of George Orwell like Animal farm or big brother or 1986 etc.