Summer Reading Review

Back in May I did a post about a few of the books I wanted to read over the summer.  Since I was studying for my CPHON exam in May I didn't get to start reading until June.  I started off with book #1, by Emily Giffin.  I liked it alot!  It was right up my alley.  There were characters from my hometown, Midland, it was based in Texas, there was lots of talk about the Big 12 and there was a sweet, unexpected love story.  If you love girly books and you like football this is the book for you.

From there I got a little side tracked.....because of this......

Book #5 on my list.  Divergent.  To say I fell in love with this book is an understatement.  A bit obsessed may be a little more appropriate.  I didn't start reading this one until the end of August.....I didn't read much in July.  Moving to working 5 days a week really threw me for a loop and then I was super tired in the evening with baby #2.  Over labor day weekend I couldn't put Divergent down.  I finished it in less than a week and then insisted we watch the movie when we got home from the lake on Labor Day evening.  I watched it for the second time the night before my surgery.  This story line, the characters and the love story have kept my mind busy and happy over the last 2 weeks!!!

Since Labor Day weekend I have finished Insurgent and Allegiant.  I can't say enough how great these books are.  I was and am a huge Twilight fan.  Same goes for The Hunger Games.  But, I'm going to have to say Divergent is my favorite.  Why?  Tris and Tobia's love for each other.  They respect each other, hold each other accountable, and most importantly they make each other better.  When I was struggling with my own love life a close physician friend told me I'd know I'd found "the one" when they made me a better person.  He couldn't have been more right.  Before Gordon this wasn't the case.  The guys I dated before him, if anything, made me worse.  Less ambitious, less driven, etc, etc.  Gordon made me want to do better, be better, be healthier, take better care of myself, take care of him....you get the point.  So, reading about Tris and Tobia's love made me so happy.  I couldn't read fast enough and yet I didn't want the books to ever end.  It was a real love.  They made each other better, they built each other up.

Here are a few of my favorite paragraphs from the third book, Allegiant:

"I used to think that when people fell in love, they just landed where they landed, and they had no choice in the matter afterward.  And maybe that's true of beginnings, but it's not true of this, now.  
I fell in love with him.  But I don't just stay with him by default as if there's no one else available to me.  I stay with him because I choose to, every day that I wake up, every day that we fight or lie to each other or disappoint each other.  I choose him over and over again, and he chooses me."
"Just as I have insisted on his worth, he has always insisted on my strength, insisted that my capacity is greater than I believe.  And I know, without being told, that's what love does, when it's right-it makes you more than you were, more than you thought you could be."  

Needless to say, I'll be at the theater on opening night to see Insurgent.  March 2015 can't come soon enough!!!!  It doesn't hurt that Tobias is played by one of the prettiest human beings on the planet, Theo James.  Once I'm done reading Four, by Veronica Roth, I guess I'll have to move onto my original "summer reading" list!