Tootfinder

Indirect CW for teen pregnancy, rape, death.
Just finished "Girls Like Us" by Randi Pink. Pink has a knack for telling stories that capture the grim but also vibrant nuances of African-American history. I previously read "Under the Heron's Light" which has more elements of magical realism and connects more directly to the history of enslavement; "Girls Like Us" is more historical fiction, with a bridge at the end to contemporary times (circa 2019, when the book was published). It tells the story of a disparate group of mostly-Black teens who are pregnant in 1972, and shows a range of different outcomes as varied as the backstories of the different girls. Rather than just separate vignettes, the girls' stories are women together into a single plot, and Pink is a expert at pulling us in to deeply contemplate all the complexities of these girls' lives, showing rather than telling us truths about the politics of teen pregnancy and abortion, and how even though the choices involved don't have simple answers, taking those choices out of the hands of the people they most intimately affect is cruel and deadly.
#AmReading #ReadingNow

Not to mention that available foods may not be suitable.
The one time my wife and I had to use a food bank during COVID, we queued for a couple of hours, constantly derided for being shiftless and poor by the Baptist volunteers who ran the bank.
At the end, we were told to be thankful for what we received: a couple of pieces of fruit that would’ve killed my wife (anaphylactic allergies) and pasta, pasta sauce, and bread, all containing gluten (she has coeliac disease).