MAPHEAD Charting the Wide, Weird World of Geography Wonks

Jennings, known for his months-long reign as a “Jeopardy” champion, starts with his own admittedly geeky fascination with maps and then examines other types of geography-related interests and obsessions. Narrator Kirby Heyborne has an immediately likable boy-next-door voice. He reads with a liveliness, amiability, and touch of humor that exactly suit the book. He also moves the work along at just the right pace and provides appropriate shading to the author’s excitement and enthusiasm. However, he mispronounces many words (“Borges,” “Pepys,” “Giovanni,” “incongruously,” for example), and the repeated distraction partly spoils his good work. It’s ironic that the reading of a book by a man known for getting so many things right gets so many things wrong. W.M. © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine [Published: NOVEMBER 2011]