deanofs,
Try "Pilot's Weather" by Brian Cosgrove. He explains things really clearly, with lots of diagrams. I would use Thom and the Confuser so you know what you're likely to be asked in the exam, but Brian Cosgrove's books to really understand the stuff.
Remembering clouds...
Three classifications as to height:
High - cirrus or cirro-something-or other.
Medium - Alto-something or other
Low - no prefix.
Within this there are two categories:
Stratus or strati-something-or other - layered
Cumulus or cumilo-something-or-other - heaped
Also Nimbus - rain bearing.
So cirro-stratus translates as high layered cloud. Alto-cumulus is medium heaped cloud. Cumulonimbus are heaped rainbearing cloud. Just remember the classifications, and you can probably sort out the rest.
What do you want to know about adiabatic lapse rates and I'll try to explain it, or if I can't I'm sure someone else on here can.