Directions has a review of Cynthia Brewer’s Designing Better Maps: A Guide for GIS Users, which sounds really interesting: it’s a book about design choices for cartography — i.e., what looks good, what doesn’t. From the review: “[It] covers all the basics of cartography in a very focused way aimed at practitioners. Don’t expect a complete discussion on projections, but rather ‘rules of thumb’ on which to use for which type of map.”

Over on Webmapper, read Edward’s detailed review of Mapping Hacks: as a European, he notes that many of the hacks rely on U.S. datasets; he also finds that the book is mainly aimed at software developers and web designers, rather than cartographers and GIS pros.

Not a review as such, because Adena was in on the writing, she says, but All Points Blog mentioned Fun with GPS by Donald Cooke a few weeks back. It sounds hilarious — attaching GPSes to various things. Must investigate.

• Buy Designing Better Maps at Amazon.com
• Buy Fun with GPS at Amazon.com
• Buy Mapping Hacks at Amazon.com