London is the Best City in America

Today I finished the book "London is the Best City in America" by Laura Dave. I loved the last book that I read, but this one may be my favorite of the year so far. (And as an FYI, after I finish my next book, I'll be able to mark something off of my new years resolutions list.)
Even halfway into the book, I wasn't quite sure where the author was going with the characters. She held my attention right until the end and the overall message still has me thinking. Here is my favorite part of the book; the part that really drives it home.

"When you were little, you were always saying that Josh got to make all the choices because he was older. 'Why does he get to make all the decisions around here, Mom?' you'd say. 'How is that fair?' So for your seventh birthday, your father said you could pick where we went on the summer trip. You could pick any city in America as far away as Seattle, as close as Manhattan. You know which city you picked?"
I knew it without her even saying that much. I'd always known it, and I was starting to understand something else too--where she was going with this. What I wouldn't allow myself to see before now.
"London," I said.
"London," she repeated. "And the thing was, it didn't matter how many times I told you that we weren't paying for four plane tickets to London. That a driving trip was the only option. It was like you couldn't see anything else. And when even Dad took out that map and tried to explain to you that London wasn't even in America, you just kept arguing with him. "But I want to go to London. It's the best city in America. I'll only go there.' For weeks around here. You were like a broken record."
"Where did we end up going instead that year?" I said, trying to remember. I couldn't recall it.
"Hershey, Pennsylvania...which you loved. You turned to your father the very first day there and said , 'Dad, I think Hershey, Pennsylvania, is even better than London would have been.'"
Hershey. All I could visualize with any certainty was the car ride up there, sitting behind my father in the backseat, staring sullenly at the back of his head. "Really? I said that?"
"No." She shook her head. "You complained the entire time. 'This restaurant isn't London. This candy store isn't London. Over here, this isn't London either.'"
"How can I not remember?"
She shrugged, picking up her fork again, fixing a bite for me this time. "You were too busy complaining."
...
But she didn't reach for my hand, or lean farther forward so she could touch my face. She just shrugged, "What happened the day I met your father," she said, "is that you have to choose. For better or for worse. You have to choose what your life is going to look like."
I tried to swallow, tried to think of what I wanted to say, what I was really thinking. "I just don't feel like I have good choices yet," I said. "It makes it hard to give up the old ones."
She waved me off. "Well. You're behind all that anyway," she said. "You're still stuck on the same part you were stuck on at seven."
"What part is that?"
"The part where you need to choose among the choices that are there, and not the ones that aren't anymore. At least not how you need them to be. You're still suck on some imaginary idea you have of how it could have been. You need to think about how it is now. And how you want it to be."

Wow. Talk about some good advice. LOVED this book. Get a copy or borrow mine today.

UPDATE: Just found out that this book is going to be a movie starring the ever lovely Reese Witherspoon. I'm getting giddy just thinking about how amazing that could be. :)