Summer has flown by for me! Since I wasn't in school and someone has been on maternity leave at work, I've been spending most of my days at the hospital the past few months. Boy am I ready to get back to school and not be at work so much... the extra $ has been nice but I feel like my patience and good-naturedness has been slowly sucked away every time I set foot in that hospital, particularly these past few weeks. Talk about burn out...
Anyway, when I haven't been at work I've been catching up on some pleasure (as opposed to textbook) reading - my most favorite (and relaxing) thing to do! I tend to go through genre kicks, and this summer it has been YA
Dystopian novels. I'd never been into sociopolitical type stuff until The Hunger Games, but rather than read the trilogy for the umpteenth time, I figured I'd see what else I could find.
So, over the past few weeks I've enjoyed:
and it's sequel
All in all a pretty good series thus far. I enjoyed the second book much more, which is odd for me since I always have a hard time with middle books in trilogies. The Death Cure is to be released in October, and I'm much looking forward to it! The plot is so convoluted I can't even begin to explain so read about the storyline
here.
Was ok... Basically its about a society in which everything is chosen for you (your spouse, your job, where you live, when you will die, etc.) and in return you get to live a long and "perfect" life. Not so. Book 2 (Crossed) comes out soon so I'm interested to see where it goes. For more on the storyline, go
here.
Oooh, this one was particularly interesting! I loved the snippets of government propaganda (including revised biblical verses to "support" their agenda) as the chapter headings. Very disturbing. More than just a mere love story. Bittersweet ending, but I'm excited for the sequel, Pandemonium. Read more about the storyline
here.
Ah, but my favorite read of them all
LOVED this book. I am so sad that its sequel, Insurgent, doesn't come out until next year! I always do that too, grrrr... It's based on a society that has chosen 5 virtues to build itself upon, deeming them the only way to obtain perfection, order, peace, and happiness. It is a world of absolutes, no middle-ground. Of course, as with all dystopian novels, this society is not as perfect as it seems and the protagonist discovers this as she is forced to make difficult and life-altering decisions regarding which Faction she will belong to. More on the storyline
here.
One more fun thing I've done this summer was discovering the hilariousness that is
Oh. My. Goodness. I cannot believe it's taken me THIS long to finally come to appreciate the sheer genius of this show!!! Ben has watched it for years and I would always roll my eyes and bury my head in a book because I thought it was boring and ridiculous and just plain dumb. Then one night after a very bad day at work, I just needed some mind-numbing
anything. I turned on Netflix and by some stroke of luck decided I was actually kind of curious about The Doctor...(WHO exactly is he? Why does he have so many faces? What's with the flying police box? And what the heck is a sonic screwdriver?!?!?) Within 10 minutes I was rolling! Ben was flabbergasted, to say the least! Now I'm hooked!
School starts Monday and I will be even busier now with both work and school, so I fear my pleasure reading and Dr.Who kick will come to an abrupt end. *sigh* Oh well, at least I'll have a few books and many more Docta episodes to look forward to as "treats" after big tests or on short breaks. I really am excited for school to start back up, I've been ready since July! Such a nerd, I know... ;)
