Orange is the New Black

Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison (2010) by Piper Kerman. The author provides a fascinating look at how she became caught up in the criminal justice system, and how her year in prison was not the horrific experience some readers might expect. During her incarceration (in a minimum security prison) she found that she felt connected to her fellow inmates, and formed many meaningful relationships that she had not foreseen. She also became a fierce critic of the American system of "justice," and writes knowingly about how the drug laws and zero-tolerance statutes have made the prison population zoom. I felt as if I had been introduced to a world that I did not know existed, and reading the book was an enriching experience. Grade: B