I love to look at maps! Yes, I was that kid who spent road trips buried in the atlas in the backseat while my parents (fruitlessly) exhorted me to look up and look around at the things we were passing. To be fair to me: I grew up in the cornfields of Central Illinois, and while it’s lovely and all – once you’ve seen a few hundred cornfields, you’ve pretty much seen them all. There are no further mysteries to uncover.

Maps, on the other hand, are an endless exposition of information on all sorts of places. Once you start exploring down the road of maps, and map literacy, you will never return to the dull life of merely idly wondering what’s going on outside your car window – or around the globe.

So this week, we are looking at a few books you can explore for yourself, spend a happy weekend reading, or recommend to others. Use these as the start of a cool display in your library! (Look around: have those displays changed this month? Keep those books churning to up your circ numbers!)

As always, clicking thru these links will take you to Amazon. If you buy a nice book, or anything else, at that time, then Amazon will give us a small percent of their profits from your sale. Thank you in advance for supporting us!

” All leaders of nations are constrained by geography. Their choices are limited by mountains, rivers, seas, and concrete. To understand world events, news organizations and other authorities often focus on people, ideas, and political movements, but without geography, we never have the full picture. Now, in the relevant and timely Prisoners of Geography, seasoned journalist Tim Marshall examines Russia, China, the USA, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Japan and Korea, and Greenland and the Arctic—their weather, seas, mountains, rivers, deserts, and borders—to provide a context often missing from our political reportage: how the physical characteristics of these countries affect their strengths and vulnerabilities and the decisions made by their leaders.

In ten, up-to-date maps of each region, Marshall explains in clear and engaging prose the complex geo-political strategies of these key parts of the globe. What does it mean that Russia must have a navy, but also has frozen ports six months a year? How does this affect Putin’s treatment of the Ukraine? How is China’s future constrained by its geography? Why will Europe never be united? Why will America never be invaded? Shining a light on the unavoidable physical realities that shape all of our aspirations and endeavors, Prisoners of Geography is the critical guide to one of the major (and most often overlooked) determining factors in world history. “

“Bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan builds on the insights, discoveries, and theories of great geographers and geopolitical thinkers of the recent and distant past to look back at critical pivots in history and then to look forward at the evolving global scene. Kaplan traces the history of the world’s hot spots by examining their climates, topographies, and proximities to other embattled lands. He then applies the lessons learned to the present crises in Europe, Russia, China, the Indian Subcontinent, Turkey, Iran, and the Arab Middle East. The result is a holistic interpretation of the next cycle of conflict throughout Eurasia, a visionary glimpse into a future that can be understood only in the context of temperature, land allotment, and other physical certainties. A brilliant rebuttal to thinkers who suggest that globalism will trump geography, this indispensable work shows how timeless truths and natural facts can help prevent this century’s looming cataclysms. “

It comes as no surprise that, as a kid, Jeopardy! legend Ken Jennings slept with a bulky Hammond world atlas by his pillow every night. Maphead recounts his lifelong love affair with geography and explores why maps have always been so fascinating to him and to fellow enthusiasts everywhere.

Jennings takes readers on a world tour of geogeeks from the London Map Fair to the bowels of the Library of Congress, from the prepubescent geniuses at the National Geographic Bee to the computer programmers at Google Earth. Each chapter delves into a different aspect of map culture: highpointing, geocaching, road atlas rallying, even the “unreal estate” charted on the maps of fiction and fantasy. He also considers the ways in which cartography has shaped our history, suggesting that the impulse to make and read maps is as relevant today as it has ever been.

From the “Here be dragons” parchment maps of the Age of Discovery to the spinning globes of grade school to the postmodern revolution of digital maps and GPS, Maphead is filled with intriguing details, engaging anecdotes, and enlightening analysis. If you’re an inveterate map lover yourself—or even if you’re among the cartographically clueless who can get lost in a supermarket—let Ken Jennings be your guide to the strange world of mapheads.

Have you ever struggled with map making? Spent countless hours trying to make it comply with the laws of nature?

This book is a step-by-step guidebook that will teach you how to create an authentic fantasy map. You will gain all the knowledge necessary to complete a map which your audience will believe, no matter if they are readers, viewing a movie, video game players, or role-playing gamers. It contains the exact process I use when creating maps for my fantasy fiction. I have spent countless hours researching and learning about the topography of Earth and how to apply it to a fantasy map so that you do not have to.

Geography is more than just trivia, it can help you understand why we import or export certain products, predict climate change, and even show you where to place fire and police stations when planning a city.

If you’re curious about the world and want to know more about this fascinating place, Geography For Dummies is a great place to start. Whether you’re sixteen or sixty, this fun and easy guide will help you make more sense of the world you live in.

Geography For Dummies gives you the tools to interpret the Earth’s grid, read and interpret maps, and to appreciate the importance and implications of geographical features such as volcanoes and fault lines. Plus, you’ll see how erosion and weathering have and will change the earth’s surface and how it impacts people. You’ll get a firm hold of everything from the physical features of the world to political divisions, population, culture, and economics. You’ll also discover:

• How you can have a rainforest on one side of a mountain range and a desert on the other
• How ocean currents help to determine the geography of climates
• How to choose a good location for a shopping mall
• How you can properly put the plant to good use in everything you do
• How climate affects humans and how humans have affected the climate
• How human population has spread and the impact it has had on our world

If you’re mixed up by map symbols or mystified by Mercator projections Geography For Dummies can help you find your bearings. Filled with key insights, easy-to-read maps, and cool facts, this book will expand your understanding of geography and today’s world.