I gotta stop reading so much

I am currently reading two books: the Pride and Prejudice meets zombies novel and another Victorian murder mystery. One's at home and one's at work, so I just read either one whenever I have a few minutes. Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is pretty hilarious, but this mystery is actually sort of upsetting. The focus of this one is the plight of orphaned children in mid-19th century London, and how many of them wound up homeless, starving and exploited in the sex trade. It's just plain depressing. And I'm pretty sure I would have found this depressing before I had Lil J, but it's even worse now, thinking about someone so innocent ultimately being forced into a life like that. Ugh. I know life in America right now isn't perfect, but, man, I'm glad we at least have agencies and programs set up to help kids if they can be found. People in our old neighborhood used to complain about Children's Services all the time (because, what a surprise, they were AWFUL parents), but, really? You really think people are better off without an agency that at least makes an attempt to intervene on behalf of innocent children? And these workers still keep trying even when a kid falls through the cracks and gets killed by their mom's 17-year-old boyfriend? Horrible stuff. Good grief, I need a drink.