Recently I read Blindsight by Peter Watts.
The novel puts a very interesting spin on the alien first contact trope, with a point of view from a character who might have more in common with the aliens than baseline humanity.
I absolutely love the ideas of consciousness and self-awareness that the book puts forward. Those coupled with the highly intelligent nature of the aliens the crew encounter make for a truly alien and truly inscrutable species.
Some thoughts I had bring spoilers below the fold.
The concept of how the aliens view transmissions from Earth they’ve received from that radiating sphere of EM emissions is also interesting. The aliens don’t have self-awareness and through some element of heuristics treat every piece of information they encounter with utter seriousness.