Brian Morton, political writer up at Baltimore City Paper and a former WTOP reporter, has a new book out called Political Animal: I’d Rather Have a Better Country (Apprentice House).

The book is a collection of Morton’s BCP columns, which deal with national, Maryland, and Baltimore politics; LL has read more than a few and offers a hearty recommendation. But local readers might be just as interested in the book’s cover art, credited to Todd Shearer:

The map, in the tradition of Maira Kalman and Rick Meyerowitz‘s 2001 New Yorker cover, follows up on Washington City Paper‘s local ripoff earlier this year.

WCP’s map sticks to the District proper and is quite a bit more granular than this one, which splits D.C. into but four parts: West of 16th Street NW lie the “Implacable Pundits,” to the east of 16th and north of the Capitol axis live the “Denizens,” and to the south is “Dark Country.” Oh, and the monumental core is dubbed the “Ivory City.”