∎ PDF Orange Is the New Black My Year in a Women Prison Piper Kerman 9780385523387 Books

Orange Is the New Black My Year in a Women Prison Piper Kerman 9780385523387 Books

Download As PDF : Orange Is the New Black My Year in a Women Prison Piper Kerman 9780385523387 Books

Orange Is the New Black My Year in a Women Prison Piper Kerman 9780385523387 Books

I've read two books this month that really opened my eyes on the impact of the drug trade on the USA. The first was Orange is the New Black. Written by a Smithie who graduated shortly before I arrived there, the book is the memoir of a woman who gets mixed up with international drug smuggling after graduation, then goes straight and goes on to the life you'd expect from a Smith graduate. Then, many years after the incidents involved, the Feds show up and take her to prison. She spends a year and a half in "Club Fed", which isn't as fancy as people have made it sound. That said, she has some experiences with the bureau of prisons that make her realize that "the camp" was a paradise in comparison. At any rate, she herself had her eyes opened to the effects the drug trade had on others, the toll it takes on our society. The majority of the women she is locked up with are minor drug offenders, some of whom are serving long sentences due to sentencing minimums, many of whom are mothers of young children. She writes about how the prison system does very little to rehabilitate or prepare these women for a life outside. Instead, it breaks them down and institutionalizes them, so that they can only handle life behind bars - and then unceremoniously dumps them out on the street with 30 dollars in their pocket and the address of a homeless shelter. She notes that she is treated better at times because of her blond hair, and highlights the racism among the prison staff.

However, much of the memoir is funny and uplifting, about the great friends she makes among the other prisoners. Although you'd imagine that as an upper-middle-class, well-educated white woman, she might find it hard to fit in in prison - but she has just the right personality to make it. She is street smart enough that she doesn't come off as snooty, and while she has some of the same fears and thoughts as I would have, she handles herself so well that she becomes quite popular in the prison system. And the other prisoners aren't the hardened cons that you see on Oz - they actually make her feel welcome and it's a great community of women like any other. At any rate, the memoir really shows how the author changed her perspective on life and makes it sound as if, although unfortunate, her experiences being locked up in Danbury gave her some lifelong memories and friends that are _almost_ but not quite worth the experience.

I'm glad I'll never be in prison, but I found this book absolutely fascinating and read it straight through in a few days even though I wanted to save it for an upcoming plane trip. After all, the author and I have a lot in common. I am so glad I decided to get a job in technology after graduation, lucky as I was to be graduating into the first Internet bubble. It was fun to be able to place the author's locations, like Northampton Massachusetts. I've even stayed in the Congress Hotel in Chicago (yup, it IS a dump). And of course I remember when the Martha Stewart trial was ongoing. The songs she mentions, and the current events, will make this book something of a time capsule.


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Orange Is the New Black My Year in a Women Prison Piper Kerman 9780385523387 Books Reviews

Prison fascinates and horrifies me. My favorite TV show is Prison Break, so I thought I'd give Orange is the New Black show a try. While the TV show wasn't for me, I'm glad I read this memoir about an upper-middle-class woman who goes to prison for a year. I had the pleasure of meeting the author at a book reading/signing at a women's prison, and she is lovely in real life.

Piper Kerman's real-life story chronicling her year in prison is insightful and thought-provoking.

At times the writing impressed me, like this vivid description

"Miss Sanchez had long Frito-chip fingernails painted Barbie pink."

There are interesting insights into prison life.

"Prison is quite literally a ghetto in the most classic sense of the word, a place where the US government not puts not only the dangerous but also the inconvenient--people who are mentally ill, people who are addicts, people who are poor and uneducated and unskilled. Meanwhile, the ghetto in the outside world is a prison as well, and a much more difficult one to escape from. In fact, there is basically a revolving door between our urban and rural ghettos and the formal ghetto of our prison system."

My favorite "character" is the Russian wife of a mobster, Pop. Pop is the head cook, and gives invaluable advice to Piper.

This story makes the reader inevitably wonder how she would handle imprisonment. I resonated with Piper helping an inmate write a paper. I also would try to fit exercise into my daily routine to stay sane. But really, it's hard to imagine how awful imprisonment would be.

The groping from male guards infuriated me

"Other male COs were brazen, like the short, red-faced young bigmouth who asked me loudly and repeatedly, "Where are the weapons of mass destruction?" while he fondled me and I gritted my teeth.

There was absolutely no payoff for filing a complaint. A female prisoner who alleges sexual misconduct on the part of a guard is invariably locked in the SHU in "protective custody", losing her housing assignment, program actives, work assignment, and a host of other prison privileges, not to mention the comfort of her routine and friends."

I like how prison statistics (like one out of 100 adults are locked up in the US) are told factually without a preachy tone. I'm also glad Piper mentioned feeling remorse for trafficking drugs--the very drugs that may have been used by her fellow inmates as part of their crimes. I can get behind the decriminalization of drugs for personal use, but I disagree with the notion that drug dealers are never violent.

Overall, a good read, and I'm impressed Piper is giving back by teaching writing to prisoners.
Like most people, I was first introduced to this story from the show on Netflix. While waiting for the new season to come out it prompted me to buy the book and see how similar it was to Hollywood's spin on things. The book is MUCH different than the show. And better. The book, while it is a memoir written by Piper, makes her out to be a much better person than the Piper on the TV show. Now, if you haven't read the book or seen the TV show and you have plans to, I suggest you stop reading because there are SPOILERS ahead....

The real Piper, whose last name is Kerman and not Chapman, didn't seem as conniving or crazy as the TV show Piper. She didn't take part in a dirty panties operation, didn't do her time with Alex Voss (only a few short weeks when they were testifying in Chicago), and never got starved by the head kitchen worker. As an avid reader, I get it - the book is always different than when Hollywood takes over and makes dramatic effect on it.

The book was very informative - it displayed women bonding in a situation that is less than desirable for most of the human population. While most women, when put together with other women in cramped up places usually proves as challenging and scary, Piper Kerman talked about the positives when it came to serving time together. She included many details that the show leaves out - it was nice to actually get in her head and feel the emotions of doing time.

I'm giving it 4 stars because it took me a little longer to finish than other books. While not a bad book, there were parts where I had a hard time focusing because it felt repetitive and unnecessary. If you were into the TV show, check this out. While there are shades of similarities, the book is extremely different than what Netflix has shared with us.
I've read two books this month that really opened my eyes on the impact of the drug trade on the USA. The first was Orange is the New Black. Written by a Smithie who graduated shortly before I arrived there, the book is the memoir of a woman who gets mixed up with international drug smuggling after graduation, then goes straight and goes on to the life you'd expect from a Smith graduate. Then, many years after the incidents involved, the Feds show up and take her to prison. She spends a year and a half in "Club Fed", which isn't as fancy as people have made it sound. That said, she has some experiences with the bureau of prisons that make her realize that "the camp" was a paradise in comparison. At any rate, she herself had her eyes opened to the effects the drug trade had on others, the toll it takes on our society. The majority of the women she is locked up with are minor drug offenders, some of whom are serving long sentences due to sentencing minimums, many of whom are mothers of young children. She writes about how the prison system does very little to rehabilitate or prepare these women for a life outside. Instead, it breaks them down and institutionalizes them, so that they can only handle life behind bars - and then unceremoniously dumps them out on the street with 30 dollars in their pocket and the address of a homeless shelter. She notes that she is treated better at times because of her blond hair, and highlights the racism among the prison staff.

However, much of the memoir is funny and uplifting, about the great friends she makes among the other prisoners. Although you'd imagine that as an upper-middle-class, well-educated white woman, she might find it hard to fit in in prison - but she has just the right personality to make it. She is street smart enough that she doesn't come off as snooty, and while she has some of the same fears and thoughts as I would have, she handles herself so well that she becomes quite popular in the prison system. And the other prisoners aren't the hardened cons that you see on Oz - they actually make her feel welcome and it's a great community of women like any other. At any rate, the memoir really shows how the author changed her perspective on life and makes it sound as if, although unfortunate, her experiences being locked up in Danbury gave her some lifelong memories and friends that are _almost_ but not quite worth the experience.

I'm glad I'll never be in prison, but I found this book absolutely fascinating and read it straight through in a few days even though I wanted to save it for an upcoming plane trip. After all, the author and I have a lot in common. I am so glad I decided to get a job in technology after graduation, lucky as I was to be graduating into the first Internet bubble. It was fun to be able to place the author's locations, like Northampton Massachusetts. I've even stayed in the Congress Hotel in Chicago (yup, it IS a dump). And of course I remember when the Martha Stewart trial was ongoing. The songs she mentions, and the current events, will make this book something of a time capsule.