"The hood made me realize that crime succeeds because crime does the one thing the government doesn't do: crime cares."

This whole paragraph/section is such an interesting but accurate perspective. I don't hear it very much, but it's true. I think the only thing besides crime that does the same things ("offers internahip programs and summer jobs and opportunities for advancement...") is sports, but you have to be good at them.

Has anyone else heard crime talked about from this perspective?

i’ve read one chapter and this book is so crazy. like crazy in a sense of being so dark from the jump i did not expect all of that

I love the way she talks about Service berry with such reverence. They are a gift that she did not have to work for yet here they are. Also the way she talks about the different people's association and history with the berries is very beautiful. "Eating with the seasons is a way of honoring abundance. By going to meet it when and where it arrives." she speaks on using the gifts of the earth as on honor what is freely given. Eating seasonally to her is to be an honor not relying on groceries stores to have what you want all year all the time.

About half way through and quite late to the party (34, non-English-native, introduced and not thrilled to Jane Austen at 16 through Northanger Abbey). It took me a while to understand the characters. However, now it turns out that the book has helped me to familiarise myself with, or perhaps for the first time acknowledge bluntly: my own inner (prejudiced) Elisabeth Bennet.

Perhaps we are all judgy at times. It is a completely different notion for me to relate to this part of myself from the perspective of Miss Bennet