#20

One I got from an online summer reading list...not sure what makes this good summer read, but it was ok.  The Innocents by Francesca Segal is book #20 ~ set in London about a close knit Jewish community, a man questions his whole world & wonders if following what is expected of him is really what will make him happy.  Of course it's his girlfriend's scandalous cousin who has caught his interest...
Another tale of poor communication within relationships & thinking the grass is always greener on the other side.  It was well written & had good characters, but the plot, on the whole, just made me sad & angry.

Quotes:
p4 ~ Jasper snorted, loudly.  Jasper did everything loudly.  He was not secure enough to believe that anyone would pay him attention unless he made himself unavoidable.
p88 ~ "...it's one way of saying that substance isn't important.  Only the appearance."  "That's so superficial."  "It doesn't' need to be, it can be precisely the opposite.  It can also mean that what matters is the face you show the world and the way you treat the people in it, and that your private inner life isn't judged.  It resonates with Jewish thinking actually—that actions are what truly matter, and thoughts aren't sins unless you act on them."
p137 has the characters playing a game that just caught me by surprise & made me laugh.  It's "dispatched, hatched, or matched" ~ they turned to the social & personal page of the newspaper & someone reads a name.  The everyone else guesses if they've been dispatched, hatched or matched.  It took me a minute because they were just shouting out the words, to figure out what the heck they were talking about...dead, born, married!  Funny, no?
fl: Adam had, for the occasion, bought a new suit.  ll: As Rachel and Adam approached, hand in hand, he looked up and Adam caught his eye.  Lawrence smiled.