{a thought for Thursday} Adjectives

When you catch an adjective, kill it.  -- Mark Twain

{wordless wednesday} running in the field

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

{read: non-linear fiction} Gods Without Men by Hari Kunzru

This story follows two different paths that kind of merge for a short time. One, told chronologically, is the story of a couple with a young autistic boy. His disease has pretty much taken over their lives. On a vacation trip to the Mohave Desert, he disappears. The other story skips back and forth through time and focuses on other people who have lived in the same area where boy disappears. I had trouble following this thread because it took me a while to figure out that the stories were connected. I would be two-thirds done with a chapter until I realized that one of the characters was a character from a different chapter. Part of this is because they were called by different names (Native American names vs. English names), but part of it may have been because I wasn't paying close enough attention. I was hoping for some sort of ending that would provide resolution or at least guidance so that I could look back and tie things together, but I didn't find it. I finished the book just as confused as I had been while reading it. This book would probably appeal to those who loved Day for Night by Frederick Reiken, another novel that left me confused.

Gods Without Men by Hari Kunzru (Knopf, 2012)
My rating: 3 stars

{crafts} Mother's Day Printable Card

Free printable Mother's Day card From How About Orange

Need a simple Mother's Day card you can print immediately? Download my watercolor freebie right here. The finished card is 5.5" x 4.25", sized for a standard A-2 announcement envelope. Be sure to print at 100% without a shrink-to-fit option checked.

{a thought for Thursday} Quotations

Maybe our favorite quotations say more about us than about the stories and people we're quoting. ― John Green

{wordless wednesday} ACHOOO!!

Happy Wordless Wednesday!

{read: A dog book} One Good Dog by Susan Wilson

I read this for a book discussion and would caution animal and dog lovers that it was (at least for me)  a tearjerker. The book is told from the perspective of a self-made man who loses everything and is forced to reevaluate his life and priorities and, in alternate chapters, from the perspective of a pit bull who is forced to fight. The dog's chapters were hard for me to read throughout much of the book, especially in the beginning and in the end. He talks about what it's like to be in dog fights and what his life is like. It's a quick read, but I found it upsetting because it's realistic. So many pit bulls are bred and raised as fighters, and even if they make it to the shelters, they are often the first to be euthanized simply because of their breed, regardless of their nature.

One Good Dog by Susan Wilson (St. Martin's Press, 2010)
My rating: 3 stars