Lying politicians, scammers, cheaters and so on have been around since the beginning of time. Read about many of them in A Treasury of Deception: Liars, Misleaders, Hoodwinkers, and the Extraordinary True Stories of History's Greatest Hoaxes, Fakes and Frauds by Michael Farquhar. Interesting, fun, and a bit depressing, be sure to read the chapter on subliminal advertising carefully, and don't miss the appendix dealing with doublespeak at the back. Still, some deceptions might be considered acceptable. Think the ghost soldiers in WWII, or the slave who mailed himself north to safety.

This might be one of the more unusual social history books I've read: Waste and Want: a Social History of Trash, by Susan Strasser. Not bad overall, a bit 'text booky' in places, I especially enjoyed the early chapters on when we really had no trash at all, everything was used up. That process was fascinating! As we became a less rural society, 'trash happened', and something had to be done with it. Next came plastics, packaging, planned obsolescence, and the push to have the 'newest' of, well, anything and everything. And then, of course, the move back to reuse, recycle, repurpose.

Reading Hermit With Dog