John, I'm sure there are several good books out there for a Modern
Physics course, and I have used a few of them. But my favorite is
Kenneth Krane's book which is now in its second edition (1996) and
published by Wiley. It is readable by students and fits my pedagogical style.
As to the course, your description sounds close to what I do:
relativity, dual nature of light and particles, basic quantum theory
(quickly up through the hydrogen atom since we have a separate
quantum course), lasers, nuclear physics and elementary particles.