Book Smart Kate

Book: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟 Audiobook: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

by Peng Shepard – Nell Young was born to be a Cartographer. Maps were in her blood. Her parents were cartographers, and she honored her mother’s legacy while following in her father’s footsteps with a coveted internship at the NY Public Library – until she attempted to analyze an old gas station map she found in a junk box in the library basement. A senior cartographer screamed at her, told he it was a meaningless map, demanded she be fired, and got her blocked from the cartography community before her career began. Worst of all, the man who did it was her father. Now, seven years later, she gets a call that her father has died in the NY Public Library. When sorting through his effects, she finds the same gas station map that ruined her career tucked away in a hidden compartment of his desk. She soon discovers that the map is anything but ordinary, with people willing to pay millions or take lives for its secret. Wanting to understand why her father said it was worthless only to save it in a private place, Nell begins to investigate the map and unravels family secrets that have unknowingly shaped her own life.

This book is absolutely consuming. You delve into the art and science of mapmaking while also exploring magic, greed, and obsession. Told between the present day and stories from a series of people from her past, we, as readers, assemble the pieces with Nell and her ex-boyfriend Felix (also fired that fateful day seven years ago). It is a fast-paced murder mystery with history, art, tech, and magic. Once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down.

The audiobook offers an immersive experience with a full cast of seven different narrators that keeps you on the edge of your seat. I had a print copy of the book as well (from a recent trip to @jabberwocky_books_nbpt ), but if you opt for the audiobook and don’t have a print copy, the introduction shares a website where you can view the maps printed in the book, adding another layer to your reading experience.