Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything , Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner.  Pop economics made accessible through anecdote - the only trouble is, I feel like I'd already read it. Levitt's papers have been reported so often that I've become familiar with their substance without having to read this book. It reads at times, more like basic sociology than economics, because there's very little hard data or facts involved. Occasionally, the book presents the result of an undocumented algorithm, but it does so in such a way as to insult the reader. The chapter on parenting looks like a lecture that hasn't even gotten an attempted revision. Levit repeats the same set of variables in three different places, perhaps assuming that the reader is too stupid to turn back a few pages if he forgets them. Highly readable, but also largely fluffy.

Bait and Switch : The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream, Barbara Ehrenreich. I first read this having just come off a 4 month job search, and I wasn't terribly impressed with this account of white collar unemployment and hiring practices. Sure, because I'm part of the subject group it's going to seem intuitive to me, but honestly? I can't expect anyone to take those hiring counselors seriously. That said, there's not nearly as much undercover journalism going on these days, and I applaud the author for her effort.

Forbidden Knowledge: From Prometheus to Pornography, by Roger Shattuck .  An astonishingly broad, yet informative overview of the title subject. The first half considers forbidden knowledge in the abstract and its earliest depictions in literature, from Genesis to Milton and Mary Shelley. The second half of the book deals with "case studies" - genetics from Darwin to gene sequencing and the Marquis De Sade. The section on Sade is a must-read for its history of the academic rehabilitation of Sadean pornography. It asks some excellent questions about the merit of such 'dangerous knowledge' and argues for a more balanced evaluation of Sade. There's an excellent bibliography to complement the scattered footnotes, as well as a couple of appendixes detailing Shattuck's categories of knowledge. Very nicely done indeed.

Life's Little Deconstruction Book  by Andrew Boyd. A quirky pocket-sized volume that'll appeal to studiers and followers of cultural postmodernism alike. Comprised of numbered 'directives' that instruct the reader to do postmodern manifesto-ish things, the book pokes fun at its subject while simultaneously expounding subjective thematic virtues quite well. The only thing that would make this better would be turning it into a poster.

Hard Sell: The Evolution of a Viagra Salesman, Jamie Reidy.  You could just as easily subtitle this book "how one man slacked off with increasing audacity." Little about the drug itself, or the cultural reasons for popularity, this is a moderately interesting look at a drug rep's job.  Word of warning, though - like many such tomes, it may make you more wary of pharmacy prices and HMO practices.

Everything Bad is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter, Steven Johnson.  Johnson's premise is painfully simple, but admirably backed up with rather excessive minutiae about role-playing games and multilevel television. Decent ammunition for rebutting "the media is making us stupid" myth, Johnson skates along mostly on the merits of an admittedly catchy title.  As popular sociology goes, compare this to Atkins diet books.

  O: The Intimate History of the Orgasm, Jonathan Margolis.  400 pages about the title subject, in equal parts clinical, historical, with a good bit of speculative social anthropology and a nice section on the depiction of the orgasm in early literary pornography. You can read this for the entertainment value and come away knowing a nice handful of memorable academic findings.

Roots of Desire, Marion Roach. In this fascinating and easily accessible chronicle, Roach, herself a redhead sets out to document the myth and reactions surrounding redheads over the ages. As well as anecdotal and folkloric elements, the book covers the eugenic preoccupation with hair color and temperament and the recent discovery of the gene.

Sex Collectors, Geoff Nicholson.  Nicholson's relationship with a female pornographer and a friend's preoccupation with Linda Lovelace ephemera led him to pen this recent, oft-reviewed work of popular nonfiction.  The result is half catalogue, half travelogue, with a fair bit devoted to annotated bibliographies and the sociology of collection, offering a varied cross section of the compulsive erotica hoarder.  Nicholson describes collections of paintings, playing cards, burlesque photographs, and even the slightly macabre but beautiful Chinese lotus shoe, all the while questioning things like the notion of sexual "museums" and the art value of some possessions.  It's a literate, if not terribly highbrow read, though whether it deserves the attention its gotten is another question entirely.

The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference, Malcolm Gladwell - an overlong book explaining a rather simple sociological principle, but the examples are clear and interesting.