Bryce Moore's Blog, page 322

Book Review: The Magicians

The Magicians by Lev Grossman


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Every now and then I read a book that I just can't put down. This is one of those. The writing is literary and fascinating, the characters complex, the subject intriguing--I don't know . . . Everything about this book worked for me.

It's basically your standard YA fantasy at heart, but approached from a much more reality-based angle. What if the magical world the main character discovers doesn't change his life for the better? What if the pr...

Another Plug for Mint

I'm home sick today, and I have no real desire to come up with a Novel Idea for a blog post, so instead I'm just going to mention my favorite budgeting site again: Mint. What do I love about Mint? Honestly, what's not to love? Before Mint, I always struggled to stay on top of a budget. All of those receipts, keeping track of what went with what, how much was left in which category--it just was too much work for me. I remember when DKC and I bought our house and were suddenly saddled with all ...

Sore Throat

Woke up at 3am last night with a really sore throat, and I've been feeling out of it since. Thankfully, I could sleep some more and I'm doing somewhat better now. BYU's narrow victory over Florida didn't help much. Double overtime? I had thought when were were up by 13 in regulation that it was a done deal, but apparently the cougars wanted to make me get really worried. There were way too many times we could have lost that game. Still, we managed to get back into it somehow, and I was very e...

Movie Reviews: Paper Moon and Moon

Going with two "Moon" related reviews this time, though they couldn't be more different. The first is Peter Bogdanovich's Paper Moon, a delightful film about a con-man saddled with a girl who may or may not be his nine year old daughter in 1930s America. The con-man is played by Ryan O'Neal (of Howard Bannister "What's Up Doc?" fame) and the girl is played by his real-life daughter, Tatum O'Neal (who won an Academy Award for her role in the film--best supporting actress (though why she wasn't...

Book Review: American Gods

American Gods by Neil Gaiman


My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A fascinating book. Gaiman takes elements from mythologies across the globe and weaves them into a contemporary fantasy that's unlike any other book I've read. Really, there was nothing to NOT like about the book. The characters were all well rounded, and it was a lot of fun to see how different gods interacted with other gods. For one thing, these gods are vastly diminished in power. It's not like you're seeing all powerful Zeus engaged in ...

Tourney Time! Win a Free Copy of My Book!

That's right, folks. It's time for my annual Bryce's Ramblings NCAA Tournament Challenge. You know. The one where I make a group, I enter, my friend Kevin enters, Kevin beats me, and then I write a blog post about how great he is.

This year could be different!

This year, YOU could enter it, as well!

Why would you want to enter? Well, besides the promise of me devoting an entire blog entry to saying just how great of a person you are, I'll also throw in a copy of Cavern of Babel, FREE! That's rig...

Basketball

Tomorrow I'm going to do it. I'm going to play basketball for the first time in . . . nine years. Why am I doing this? Because I'm trying to have some regular activities for my Elders Quorum to participate it. We did a movie night a month or two ago, and in an effort to do Different Things, this month's activity is basketball. Of course, it remains to be seen how many people actually show up to play. It's totally in the realm of possibility that I'll end up playing HORSE tomorrow with my firs...

Movie Review: Parenthood

DKC and I watched Parenthood last night, a movie that came out when I was 11, and which I remember thinking "maybe I'll watch that when I'm an actual parent" at the time it came out. It just wasn't interesting to me back then, but I recognized that it might be interesting later on.

So was it?

Well, yes. But I'll throw some disclaimers in there after I get done saying what I liked about it. The movie felt fairly real. As in, the characters all had flaws, and they were believable flaws. They made...

Home Renovations

Spring is definitely in the air out here in Maine, and even though we may be getting snow in the future (you never can tell!), I'm starting to get the itch to Do Stuff To My House. Of course, some of this stuff is finishing what was left undone from last year: scraping, sanding and painting my barn-turned-garage (and cleaning up all the stuff that's left over from the renovation). But other stuff . . . other stuff consists of me wanting to knock walls down, carve out spaces for windows, take ...

Oscars

So the Oscars were last night, and thanks to the kindness of some friends, I was able to watch the whole thing live. (There are times I miss my satellite. But still not $600 worth of missing it. However, maybe my friends are beginning to get tired of me freeloading TV all the time . . .) What did I think?

Well, I thought it was too long, for one thing. Steve Martin and Alec Baldwin were . . . okay. Not stunning, not hilarious, just sort of there. The opening with Neil Patrick Harris was moroni...