http://denver.yourhub.comThe latest story posts in The Denver Newspaper Agency YourHub.comen-usnews@yourhub.com(c) 2009, YourHub.com5It seems like any reader can choose their literary pigeonholes with precision these days. Whatever your genre fix, from Chic Lit to Adventure, the publishing industry wants to shove you, nose-first, into a neat little labeled cubby. Then again, most books don't really fit into a single category...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~260141.aspx3/7/2007 3:47:24 PMTim Miller Originally inspired by Robert Browning 's poem, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," Stephen King 's Dark Tower Series chronicles Roland the Gunslinger's corkscrew journey through parallel dimensions in search of the universe's ultimate secrets. Throughout the seven book series, Rol...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~290653.aspx4/7/2007 11:45:44 AMTim Miller Russian Literature is all about syllables and emergency preparedness. In a word, Russian writers like Fyodor Dostoevsky and Leo Tolstoy are well...wordy. Their novels often feature long descriptions of places a reader really doesn't need to know about. Their diatribes on the tragic human co...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~293116.aspx4/12/2007 10:25:04 AMTim Miller Jodi Picoult's novel The Tenth Circle features a small town family facing travails, which closely parallel the poet Dante's travels through hell in his canticle Inferno . Daniel Stone spent his childhood in an Alaskan Eskimo village, where natives ostracized him for being white. Whil...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~300450.aspx4/26/2007 5:55:23 PMTim Miller This is going to sound a little crazy. According to physicist Brian Greene, the big bang wasn't actually a boom. It was probably more like a frog jumping on a pedestal in a frying pan until the waves of grease it made blew up existence like a balloon that spread out the universe's natural tend...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~308548.aspx5/15/2007 11:58:07 AMTim Miller It usually can't be said that an author is trying to do too much with a book. These days, writers manufacture manuscripts at super-phonic speeds. Reading books by big name authors like James Patterson, Janet Evanovich, Dean Koontz, and Patricia Cornwell can be like springtime: It's beautiful...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~313584.aspx5/25/2007 3:29:25 PMTim Miller British Author Jim Crace has won all kinds of awards for his fiction. After reading his novel Being Dead , many readers won't doubt his acclaim. Being Dead begins with (surprise, surprise) the death of an English couple named Joseph and Celice. In an elegiac tone suitable to two deceased ...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~318519.aspx6/7/2007 12:50:22 PMTim Miller The Cozy Fiction genre can be a little sickening sometimes. Authors of 'Cozies' tend to candy-coat the world into a homemaker's heaven, where everything turns out peachy keen. Fannie Flagg's book Can't Wait to Get to Heaven falls into this category. And it's a little nauseating. Can't Wai...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~327764.aspx6/28/2007 12:29:50 PMTim Miller Chuck Palahniuk is the Grand Master of contemporary fiction. His stories are edgy. His style is experimental. His prose is quick. His language is precise. And his ideas challenge readers' fundamental assumptions about reality. It's too bad most people don't know who he is. You might reco...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~333009.aspx7/10/2007 3:49:18 PMTim Miller Neil Gaiman is a multi-faceted writer. He composes great literature for children, teens, and adults. But his artistic versatility doesn't end with run-of-the mill storybooks and novels. For example, his Sandman graphic novel series has millions of copies in print. And his movie "Mirrorma...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~336752.aspx7/19/2007 11:37:23 AMTim Miller Novel means new. People have called long stories novels for years. By naming books 'new', we invoke hopes and expectations. Novels should be fresh and entertaining by name. They should provoke thoughts, and provide insights about what it means to be a human being. As time goes by, marketabi...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~342836.aspx8/2/2007 10:27:44 AMTim Miller Joseph just moved to Minneapolis from upstate New York. He used to be a normal teenager. But now he's paralyzed from the waste down. He spends his summer days working in a bakery, where crazy things happen. Another teenager, self-styled "Zap," works at the bakery too. Zap makes up superhero st...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~347116.aspx8/13/2007 10:11:12 AMTim Miller Colorado inspires all kinds of artists. Photographers and painters come here for the scenery. Sculptors live here for the abundance of clay. Our state's history even inspires architects and musicians. But a lot of people don't realize how many writers call it home. Studies by No Particu...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~354193.aspx8/28/2007 4:45:45 PMTim Miller People that know of Jack Kerouac often call him the King of the Beats. Literary Gurus consider his novel On The Road to be the definitive work of The Beats. But, you might be asking yourself, what exactly is a Beat? A Beat is not a purple root plant (that would be the wrong spelling any...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~361682.aspx9/12/2007 5:19:02 PMTim Miller Authors have family trees. In the literary world, stylistic influence serves as a substitute for genetic relations. For example, Jodi Piccoult called Sue Miller one of her main influences at her recent book signing in the Highland's Ranch Tattered Cover Bookstore. To carry this comparison forwa...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~375350.aspx10/10/2007 1:46:15 PMTim Miller Thomas Cleary translates a Ming Dynasty document called the Anthology on Cultivation of Realization in his book Taoist Meditation . The unknown author of Anthology... blends Buddhist, Confucianist, and Taoist beliefs. He describes spirits as benevolent bits of the positive e...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~391516.aspx11/13/2007 12:07:47 PMTim Miller In John Sandford's Political Thriller Dead Watch , Jake Winters is a U.S. Veteran. Jake writes books about politics and power. So he knows his way around Washington D.C. Even The President of the United States trusts Jake's judgment when it comes to untangling political binds. And The Chief...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~400138.aspx12/4/2007 1:12:38 PMTim Miller John Wilmot, 2 nd Earl of Rochester, insults nearly every aspect of humanity in his poem A Satyre Against Reason and Mankind . He even turns on his readers with the verse, "Women and men of wit are dangerous tools/And ever fatal to admiring fools." Mainstream publishers and critics have co...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~404576.aspx12/15/2007 11:48:10 AMTim Miller It's several hundred years in the future. Each person is bred and programmed to serve a specific function. Production and consumption of manufactured goods and ideas have replaced individual choice to enable social stability. Disease, poverty, and crime hardly exist. The government encourages sex...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~414860.aspx1/14/2008 11:20:36 AMTim Miller In their simplest form, fantasy books are pure escapism. Their plot-lines can be broken down into two basic formulas. The first kind is a quest, in which "good" heroes go on a mission to obtain some desired thing from a "bad" foe. The second type involves the main character coming into some kind...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~424299.aspx2/4/2008 2:15:52 PMTim Miller A lot of people think the blues is just a musical expression of depression and oppression. Son House, one of the original delta blues slide guitarists, sang, "The blues is a worried old hard disease/Look like if everyone you be lovin' is so confounded hard to please." Sure. Most blues songs ar...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~452900.aspx4/8/2008 2:42:46 PMTim Miller Librarians are evil. They control all the the world's information. For years, they've shushed any ideas that might make people believe there's more to life than everyday work and play. New thoughts make for a disordered, unpredictable world-and librarians hate that kind of disorganization. ...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~482128.aspx6/10/2008 1:58:42 PMTim Miller Feeling imprisoned by your life? Do you constantly compare your existence to movies like "The Matrix?" Have you ever wondered if everything you've ever been taught was some kind of lie? Then check out John Twelve Hawks' dystopian novel The Traveler . This first book in Twelve Hawks' 'The F...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~492079.aspx7/3/2008 3:22:39 PMTim Miller Identity is dubious. Life stories are retroactive patchworks of speculation. Readers who want proof of this assertion should check out a copy of the oral biography Gonzo: The Life of Hunter S. Thompson from a Douglas County Libraries. Compiled by Rolling Stone editors Jann Wenner and Core...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~508339.aspx8/14/2008 3:46:18 PMTim Miller Cory Doctorow's latest Techno-thriller book for young adults, Little Brother, explores themes of American privacy, freedom, and the Bill of Rights in the Information Age. Little Brother's 17 year-old protagonist Marcus is a self-admitted rebel geek with the technological know-how to thw...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~519960.aspx9/11/2008 2:16:49 PMTim Miller Martin Kihn is a quintessential nice guy. He walks his neighbor's dog every day, waits his turn in line, respects the employees he manages, listens to his friend's problems, and shows politeness to his fellow New Yorkers. But now he's competing with his "Nemesis" for a promotion at his marketin...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~547541.aspx11/13/2008 11:13:09 AMTim Miller A business owner with no prior criminal record runs over a police officer. A teenage girl with little propensity for violence aims a handgun at a classmate. A psychiatrist goes after a colleague with a Ball-peen Hammer. A previously honorable and affluent surgeon steals construction equipment an...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~552267.aspx11/25/2008 1:29:10 PMTim Miller Libraries can, should, and usually do support equal and open access to information. When you walk into a library, you can find all kinds of materials on subjects ranging from self improvement to Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf . Neither government, nor private institutions should control people's a...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~558674.aspx12/15/2008 10:57:13 AMTim Miller Kids books aren't bound to the same limitations as adult reading material. Unrealistic plots and kooky characters are accepted parts of juvenile fiction. Most grown-ups encourage children to believe in fantastic tales because a big imagination can lead to creative thinking and increased problem-...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~569376.aspx1/16/2009 1:19:42 PMTim Miller David Baldacci continues his King and Maxwell series with the Spy Thriller/Private Investigator Mystery Simple Genius . This book's theme may seem simple and straightforward at first. However, many readers will be impressed by Baldacci's ability to cover a wide range of topics in a single...http://denver.yourhub.com/CastleRock/Stories/Archive/Reviews/Books/Story~576114.aspx2/3/2009 2:15:09 PMTim Miller