I have been reading with the Rider - Waite Tarot for years and i highly recommend ''K Frank Jenson - The Story of the Waite-Smith Tarot.  The book explains fully about how the deck came to be and goes into the biographies of Pamela Colman Smith and A.E Waite,. 

I really love the books I've read by Theresa Reed.  Tarot—No Questions Asked: Mastering The Art of Intuitive Reading, and her latest one,  The Cards You're Dealt (reading for difficult issues like dying, bad health, caregiving, divorce, burnout, etc.)

She has written a few other books as well, both as author and co-author.  She also designed a deck for children to use—Tarot for Kids—and wrote a book to accompany the deck.  Her work is pragmatic, a breath of fresh air.

(She is also highly principled, and makes it very clear throughout her books that tarot does NOT replace a doctor or therapist!)

She cites many instances in her books of situations she has dealt with in her practice, to illustrate what a reader may encounter.   Her tone is matter-of-fact and very accessible ...and she certainly knows her stuff, including tarot history.  If I could ask a famous tarot reader to give me a reading, she'd be the one I'd pick!