Ian M

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BookBrowse Reviewer Ian is a BookBrowse Reviewer and has written reviews featured in The BookBrowse Review.

Ian Muehlenhaus is a writer, cartographer, and geographer. He teaches map design at the University of Wisconsin. He has published two non-fiction books, numerous academic journal articles, and a variety of feature screenplays and film shorts. You can find him on Twitter: @imuehlenhaus

BookBrowse Editorial Reviews (12)

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Chasing Me to My Grave: An Artist's Memoir of the Jim Crow South
by Winfred Rembert

(10/20/2021)

This book was co-written with journalist Erin I. Kelly, who sat down with Winfred every two weeks from 2018 through 2020 and transcribed his memories from biographical interview questions. She then read the pages back to him to make sure she had captured his voice accurately. The result is a masterpiece. The text is raw, candid and blunt. Kelly's organization and faithful transcription allow Rembert's stories to roll off the page as fluidly as they likely did from his mouth. This combination of

BookBrowse Editorial Review

An Unlikely Spy
by Rebecca Starford

(8/4/2021)

An Unlikely Spy is not an action-packed spy thriller. Instead, it's a long-game, character-based work of espionage. Rebecca Starford's debut novel is a near-masterpiece, combining impeccable historical detail with John le Carré-esque tension and intrigue. She layers intricate details into her story, transporting the reader to the time and place. Like a classic Hollywood film, the novel takes its time to unfold and rewards the reader's patience with depth.

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Day Zero
by C. Robert Cargill

(5/19/2021)

The book is a quick and easy read. There is nothing too complex here, and there seems to be a robot gunfight on every other page. Even if you don't bond with plush, robotic tiger characters very easily, the relationship between Pounce and Ezra is adorable. Fast pace and existential robot questions aside, however, the book is not without its faults. First, it's hard to figure out who the target audience is for this novel. Given the lack of depth and the middle-school-level vocabulary, it could ma

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Under a White Sky: The Nature of the Future
by Elizabeth Kolbert

(4/21/2021)

Kolbert's narrative is informed and informative, and she doesn't avoid questioning the potential ethical dilemmas posed by these new innovations. Admittedly, gene editing and turning the sky bright white with sulfates, reducing the amount of sunlight reaching the Earth by two percent, could have unforeseen repercussions. However, as she presents ever-mounting evidence that current approaches for "saving the environment" simply don't work — in fact, have never worked — and other solutions exist,

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Best Laid Plans: A Nora Best Mystery #1
by Gwen Florio

(2/17/2021)

Overall, Best Laid Plans is a bit of a tease. It seduces with a quick-moving plot, a few charming characters, and just enough tension to not be a bore. Like all teases, though, it also leaves you hanging for more. That said, Florio is a great writer. Her descriptions of nature and food were vivid and engaging. If you're looking for some fun, easy reading by a gifted writer, I definitely recommend this one. If you prefer suspenseful thrillers or complex plotlines, you may want to look else

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality
by Frank Wilczek

(1/20/2021)

Wilczek adroitly intersperses the technicalities of subatomic particles with slice-of-life vignettes from his own experiences and uses metaphors that are memorable and convincing. His narrative voice is neither too smart nor too cute. Fundamentals informs while never feeling condescending, and it goes into great detail without losing clarity. It may be the most hopeful, humanitarian book on physics you'll ever read.

BookBrowse Editorial Review

The Book Collectors: A Band of Syrian Rebels and the Stories That Carried Them Through a War
by Delphine Minoui

(11/18/2020)

The Book Collectors works because of its structure. The writing is poetic, but the chapters are short. In fact, most start and conclude with an abruptness resembling the variable length of WhatsApp video chats. In lesser hands, the book would feel like a series of disjointed journal entries recapping what was said in patchy internet interviews. But Minoui uses the choppy style to mimic the intermittent nature of how she met and came to know the individuals in the book. She then teases out

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Crossings
by Alex Landragin

(8/5/2020)

The problem with body-hopping over the course of 200 years is that one ends up with a lot of "main" characters with so many personalities, body traits, genders and memories, you cannot recall all of the previous people comprising the current one. I also had trouble remembering if the soul had already possessed a certain character yet. Still, Landragin's prose is gorgeous. If you enjoy mystical, history-spanning books that largely take place in France or in French colonies, you will probably love

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA
by Neil Shubin

(5/6/2020)

There were times I caught myself unable to stop reading, even though in general I'm not at all interested in worm DNA. Like a good television series, the pacing never flinches. Each chapter leaves you wondering what will come next. There is something for everyone here — scientific history, the science of evolution, and information that can help us speculate how life will evolve in the future (with or without human tinkering). Neil Shubin has written a masterful book, and I feel both lucky

BookBrowse Editorial Review

The Catalyst: How to Change Anyone's Mind
by Jonah Berger

(4/8/2020)

The Catalyst suffers from the fact that it was written by a business professor, not a science journalist. It is lively and full of anecdotes, but lacks the depth of research and interviews that Gladwell typically brings to a book. Scholarly rigor aside, it's a book that will stick with you. Its concepts are difficult to shake and continually pertinent in everyday life, and it will likely enlighten how you approach arguments and discussions in a positive way.

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Between Two Fires: Truth, Ambition, and Compromise in Putin's Russia
by Joshua Yaffa

(1/22/2020)

This book's power lies in its exhaustive evidence that all Russians, regardless of background, are cursed by the state's authority. All face moral and existential dilemmas at different points in their lives and must choose how to navigate them without running afoul of the authorities. Yaffa's focus on unique individuals and how they have squirmed their way through life makes Between Two Fires far more visceral than a standard non-fiction work about life in contemporary Russia. He gives Ru

BookBrowse Editorial Review

Wyoming
by JP Gritton

(11/13/2019)

There is not much action, but the character and situational dramas are so deep and vivid that Wyoming never bores. Fire is the principal theme; the book begins with a forest fire, and proceeds to run through a series of fiery relationships and smoldering guilt. It ends with the reader trying to find salvation through the smoke and ashes. Is Shelley a guileless dupe? His own worst enemy? An anti-hero? The author succeeds at making the reader care enough to find out.

Reviews (2)

Ruthie Fear: A Novel
by Maxim Loskutoff

Coming of Age in Rural America: It's Complicated and Beautiful (7/13/2020)

Ruthie Fear is a beautiful coming of age story. Loskutoff's descriptive style is vivid, immersing the reader into the bleakness of growing up poor in a beautiful part of Montana. The banality and tension of being raised an only child of a destitute, single, yet loving, father is visceral. The characters are deep and multidimensional; their conflicted emotions twisting the reader in knots -- from empathy to anger. If you ever wanted to read a mashup of "Catcher in the Rye" and "No Country for Old Men," this is it -- with a female heroine. Guns, taxidermy, high school football, good ol' boys, class conflict, sweeping landscapes... This one will stick with you for a long while.

The Sun Down Motel
by Simone St. James

Two Great Mysteries in One Spooky Motel (11/5/2019)

The Sun Down Motel is a quick and enjoyable read that will appeal to baby boomers and millennials.

The novel consists of two converging mysteries taking place at the eponymous motel, 35 years apart. St. James is adept at jumping back-and-forth between the two mysteries to keep the reader invested in both.

Several major characters are a bit shallow, the supernatural elements are more icing than cake, and the ending is a bit anticlimactic. Yet, these flaws don't spoil the read.

Sun Down Motel is fun and engaging. A great page-turner and a solid recommend.