War is a Racket by Smedley Butler is relevant at any age, but it would be particularly meaningful for someone who’s in the target demographic of recruitment propaganda.
take him out in nature/wrenching on your tractor/digging holes for trees. sounds like he is full of piss and vinegar. find his 'thing', exploit it.
telling a kid to read a book is as hard as it is to tell an adult to read a book.
but, to address the original question:
how to stay alive in the woods-angier (since this is rokslide)
principles-dalio (#1 fav, have read it numerous times)
the hard things about hard things-horowitz (#2 fav, have read it numerous times)
Brain rules (medina)(great book, easy fun read)
outliers (gladwell)(great book, easy fun read)
tools of titans-feriss-tons of 'short' reads in it
patents-ikenson
quadrivium-walker
meditations-MA
letters from a stoic-seneca
hes a kid first and foremost. if the book sounds/looks/feels like you are forcing him, he'll push from it. fun shorts are better. 'my electrician drives a porsche' has long been on my 'ill pick it up someday fun read' book.
He is about the age to enjoy the Flashman books. They are historical fiction of an British Army Officer in the late 1800s Victorian era. They are extremely detailed and well researched and you will learn more about shitty historical leaders, military history and general world events and cultures from that series than any other book series. There are plenty of womanly adventures to keep it all interesting too.
G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy
John C. Wright, The Iron Chamber of Memory
Those might be heavy lifts. More fun reads that are a straight up gateway drug to a lifetime of reading...
Larry Correia, Monster Hunter International
That book will hook a young man in a hot second. High school reading lists are misery rolled in stupidity. This, rocks. His Dead Six trilogy, written with a no kidding EOD Iraq Vet is lit, and the genesis of the first book was originally posted on WeTheArmed many moons ago.
A little more science fiction bent, written by another veteran of Iraq, Zachary Hill, Sakura, Intellectual Property. It has a heavy metal playlist to go with it.
If he likes a different genre, Terry Pratchett and the Discworld series is fun.
The Book of Five Rings by Musashi is a deep read. It is a mirror, and the more you grow, the deeper it goes.
If he is a gun guy... Jeff Cooper, The Art of the Rifle is enjoyable. As is Ed McGivern's Book of Fast and Fancy Revolver Shooting.
If I didn't hit something, please ask, I am a voracious reader and there is something for everyone.
sirens of titan by Kurt Vonnegut is one of my faves. All these recommendations about financial success and how to be a man sound kinda boring to recommend to a 17 y.o. This one is a mindf*** but probably valuabe to read at that age. i have read it over and over ...