Orange is the New Black: My Year in a Women's Prison by Piper Kerman

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

“We have a racially based justice system that overpunishes, fails to rehabilitate, and doesn't make us safer.”

Piper Kerman tells of her experience in this raw and revealing memoir. Recounting everything from the lives of her fellow inmates, treatment by the guards, her assigned jobs, and how she managed to build a life for a year sequestered within concrete walls. What I found most endearing though was what she came away learning, both about herself and the other women sentenced to do time in prison. 

After watching some of the television series and feeling it was a bit exaggerated and overly raunchy, I decided to give the book a try. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised. I really enjoyed Piper's personal story of self-discovery in her "journey" through the prison system. It was really eye-opening in how inmates are so inadequately prepared to be successful in living a life of good choices rather than poor ones.