Hi All- I’m the Review Editor for the “Atlas and Book Review” section of the WAML Information Bulletin. I’m seeking reviewers for the following books (descriptions for these books are taken from Amazon or publisher’s website). I may have more books (and will have a mapping project) for review soon, so keep looking for emails from me. * The Japanese Buddhist World Map: Religious Vision and the Cartographic Imagination, by D. Max Moerman, University of Hawaii Press, December 2021, ISBN: 978-0824886783. From the fourteenth through the nineteenth centuries Japanese monks created hundreds of maps to construct and locate their place in a Buddhist world. This expansively illustrated volume is the first to explore the largely unknown archive of Japanese Buddhist world maps and analyze their production, reproduction, and reception. In examining these fascinating sources of visual and material culture, author D. Max Moerman argues for an alternative history of Japanese Buddhism―one that compels us to recognize the role of the Buddhist geographic imaginary in a culture that encompassed multiple cartographic and cosmological world views. The contents and contexts of Japanese Buddhist world maps reveal the ambivalent and shifting position of Japan in the Buddhist world, its encounter and negotiation with foreign ideas and technologies, and the possibilities for a global history of Buddhism and science. Moerman’s visual and intellectual history traces the multiple trajectories of Japanese Buddhist world maps, beginning with the earliest extant Japanese map of the world: a painting by a fourteenth-century Japanese monk charting the cosmology and geography of India and Central Asia based on an account written by a seventh-century Chinese pilgrim-monk. He goes on to discuss the cartographic inclusion and marginal position of Japan, the culture of the copy and the power of replication in Japanese Buddhism, and the transcultural processes of engagement and response to new visions of the world produced by Iberian Christians, Chinese Buddhists, and the Japanese maritime trade. Later chapters explore the transformations in the media and messages of Buddhist cartography in the age of print culture and in intellectual debates during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries over cosmology and epistemology and the polemics of Buddhist science. * Atlas of Imagined Places: from Lilliput to Gotham City, by Matt Brown and Rhys B. Davies, Batsford, November 2021, ISBN: 978-1849946414. From Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot to the superhero land of Wakanda, from Lilliput of Gulliver's Travels to Springfield in The Simpsons, this is a wondrous atlas of imagined places around the world. Locations from film, tv, literature, myths, comics and video games are plotted in a series of beautiful vintage-looking maps. The maps feature fictional buildings, towns, cities and countries plus mountains and rivers, oceans and seas. Ever wondered where the Bates Motel was based? Or Bedford Falls in It's a Wonderful Life? The authors have taken years to research the likely geography of thousands of popular culture locations that have become almost real to us. Sometimes these are easy to work out, but other times a bit of detective work is needed and the authors have been those detectives. By looking at the maps, you'll find that the revolution at Animal Farm happened next to Winnie the Pooh's home. Each location has an extended index entry plus coordinates so you can find it on the maps. Illuminating essays accompanying the maps give a great insight into the stories behind the imaginary places, from Harry Potter's wizardry to Stone Age Bedrock in the Flintstones. * Atlas of Design, volume 6. North American Cartographic Information Society, Pre-order (October 2022). The Atlas of Design is dedicated to showing off some of the world’s most beautiful and intriguing cartographic design. Every two years, we publish a new volume of full-color maps, selected from worldwide competition and judged by an expert panel. Deadline will be the end of October for these reviews. (I will send you more specifics if wind up reviewing one of these books). Please contact me off-list if you’re interested and I’ll send you the book, the reviewer guidelines, and a due date. Thanks- Ilene Ilene Raynes Map Library Program Manager Rare and Distinctive Collections (Includes Special Collections, Archives, Government Information Library, and Map Library) Located in the Jerry Crail Johnson Earth Sciences & Map Library University of Colorado Boulder Libraries 184 UCB, Boulder, CO 80309 [log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>