Books about Deceptive from Amazon.com

Americans are bombarded daily with mixed messages, half-truths, misleading statements, and out-and-out fabrications masquerading as facts. The news media–once the vaunted watchdogs of our republic–are often too timid or distracted to identify these deceptions.

unSpun is the secret decoder ring for the twenty-first-century world of disinformation. Written by Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, the founders of the acclaimed website FactCheck.org, unSpun reveals the secrets of separating facts from disinformation, such as:

• the warning signs of spin, hype, and bogus news
• common tricks used to deceive us
• how to find trustworthy and objective sources of information

Telling fact from fiction shouldn’t be a difficult task. With this book and a healthy dose of skepticism, anyone can cut through the haze of biased media reportage to be a savvier consumer and a better-informed citizen.

“Read this book and you will not go unarmed into the political wars ahead of us. Jackson and Jamieson equip us to be our own truth squad, and that just might be the salvation of democracy.”
–Bill Moyers

“THE DEFINITIVE B.S. DETECTOR–AN ABSOLUTELY INVALUABLE GUIDEBOOK.”
–Mark Shields, syndicated columnist and political analyst, NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

“unSpun is an essential guide to cutting through the political fog. Just in time for the 2008 campaign, Brooks Jackson and Kathleen Hall Jamieson have written a citizen’s guide to avoiding the malarkey of partisan politics.”
–Mara Liasson, NPR national political correspondent

“The Internet may be a wildly effective means of communication and an invaluable source of knowledge, but it has also become a new virtual haven for scammers–financial, political, even personal. Better than anything written before, unSpun shows us how to recognize these scams and protect ourselves from them.”
–Craig Newmark, founder and customer service representative, Craigslist.org.
Price: $7.71 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Leo Hoffman is a man of many contradictions He's a Hungarian national traveling on a French passport, a wealthy businessman with no visible means of support, and a devoted father who hasn't seen his daughter in years. He is also a spy.

Recruited by the Allies to help lay the groundwork for their invasion of North Africa, Leo intends to do as little spying as possible; he just wants earn his American citizenship, get to New York, and find his daughter. But while Leo dodges death in Morocco, two women from his past conspire to make sure he never gets that chance.

As she did in Silent Lies, M.L. Malcolm vividly recaptures rarely-explored pieces of the past by blending real historical figures with fascinating fictional characters.

From the Allies' early espionage efforts during World War II to Robert Kennedy's war on the mafia twenty years later, Deceptive Intentions tells the riveting story of two families struggling with the choices that war forced them to make, and the consequences that take a generation to unfold..
Price: $9.41 [Notify me when price goes down.]

The brilliant minds at mental_floss have entertained millions of trivia buffs with their unique magazine and publishing program. Now they've produced their first trivia card game. Each card contains two statements. One is true, the other is not. Can you spot the Big Fat Lie? Here's one from the Music category:

A) The first name of actor Will Smith is short for "Willard."
B) Rapper Dr. Dre was briefly enrolled in medical school before turning to a career in hip-hop.

Here's another from the Historical Figures category:
A) U.S. presidents John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and James Monroe all died on July 4.
B) Authors Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley were both born on October 31.

If you guessed B for both, you've identified the Big Fat Lies! With 500 questions in a wide range of categories everything from Science and History to Popular Culture Big Fat Lies! is perfect for cocktail parties with friends and family fun in the car..
Price: $5.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Curator Chris Norgren heads to Berlin to help mount a sensational exhibit of priceless works once thought to be lost. But the occasion turns chilling when Chris's boss, after sensing a forgery in the lot, turns up dead the next day outside a Frankfort brothel. Now Chris faces two near-impossible tasks--finding a fake painting amng the masterpieces, and a REAL killer still at large....
"Elkins thoroughly understands the art of the murder mystery."
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER.
Price: $31.70 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Optical illusions are fun to look at and study—and when presented in a book like this one, they make great puzzles for readers to solve. The Big Book of Optical Illusions displays more than 200 eye-foolers, all of them guaranteed to confuse while they also entertain. Optical illusions take many different forms, and this book features the best of them—ambiguous and impossible depictions of spatial areas, hidden objects contained in an illustration, color and brightness effects, size and shape misperceptions, the illusion of moving patterns, and image paradoxes. Readers will also find a glossary and a gallery of classic illusions. Full color throughout, with illustrations on most pages..
Price: $1.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Who has authority to speak for God? Does His message come through other people, through Scripture, or both? According to Neil Anderson, answers to these common questions must be based on two powerful truths: We are alive in Christ, and we are God's children. He examines * the danger of counterfeit messages * the roles of Scripture, the Spirit, and other believers * ways to guard against Satan's deceptions * the freedom that can replace fear of wrong decisions * true spiritual discernment This confidence-building resource will help readers listen for God's word to their own hearts. Questions for group study or discussion are provided at the end of each chapter. Some material previously released in Walking in the Light..
Price: $3.77 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Plain Talk and Straight Answers for Parents of Troubled Teens

Wit's End is the shockingly gripping story of how Sue Scheff, a parent of a formerly troubled teen, turned her mistakes—and her relationship with her daughter—around. This highly practical and prescriptive book calls upon Scheff's personal experiences with finding help for her daughter. It includes the same advice that Scheff offers parents through her internationally recognized organization Parents' Universal Resource Experts (P.U.R.E.)—an advocacy group that draws parents together and helps them find ways to protect their children from destructive influences by educating them about the issues their family faces and creating a safe environment to revive familial bonds.

Using the same criteria P.U.R.E. uses to research residential treatment centers and other teen-help programs around the world, Wit's End provides positive, prescriptive help for families who want to put their children on the road to a safe, healthy, happy, and independent adulthood.

Wit's End is a much-needed guide—written by a parent who has been there—that helps parents navigate the choices and methods available to them and their child. It serves as an action plan that empowers parents—and their children—toward healing.

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Price: $0.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]