From the Bookshelf of Reader with a Cause…

Orange Is the New Black

Piper Kerman

Start date: January 1, 2014

Finish date: February 15, 2014

Discussion: Orange is the New Black

Why we're reading this: For those of us who like reading the books before watching the Hollywood versions, and for those of us wh…more
[close] For those of us who like reading the books before watching the Hollywood versions, and for those of us who didn't even know it was a book before it became the Netflix show. Read on!

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Orange is the New Black

Danbury in the Media
By NNEDV · 5 posts · 17 views

last updated Feb 24, 2014 05:03PM

Life Behind Bars
By NNEDV · 2 posts · 10 views

last updated Feb 23, 2014 12:47PM

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What Members Thought

Mar 07, 2019 McKenzie rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, lgbtq, reviewed, gender-equality, multicultural, audiobook

For the full review go to www.literarydragonreviews.website/201...

“I knew that I would have to be brave. Not foolhardy, not in love with risk and danger, not making ridiculous exhibitions of myself to prove that I wasn’t terrified–really genuinely brave. Brave enough to be quiet when quiet was called for, brave enough to observe before flinging myself into something, brave enough to not abandon my true self when someone else wanted to seduce or force me in a direction I didn’t want to go, brave For the full review go to www.literarydragonreviews.website/201...

“I knew that I would have to be brave. Not foolhardy, not in love with risk and danger, not making ridiculous exhibitions of myself to prove that I wasn’t terrified–really genuinely brave. Brave enough to be quiet when quiet was called for, brave enough to observe before flinging myself into something, brave enough to not abandon my true self when someone else wanted to seduce or force me in a direction I didn’t want to go, brave enough to stand my ground quietly.” -Orange is the New Black
I listened to Orange is the New Black as an audiobook narrated by Cassandra Campbell on my way to work and on road trips.

After reading some reviews of Orange is the New Black I was getting quite frustrated so I decided to have a small rant.

Rant

Whether people realize it or not they are, in fact, talking more about what the prison system is like for men and women. Even if they are only doing so to state that Kerman’s memoir is not an accurate representation of that system they are still talking about it on a scale that hasn’t been matched in recent years.

Do I think Piper Kerman had the white, wealthy, short version of prison? Yes, does that make me inherently hate the book she wrote? No. She wrote her experience and pointed out that she had it easy compared to others on more than one occasion.

Not to mention most of the people trying to belittle Kerman’s time in prison and her subsequent memoir are the same people who have never faced any prison time let alone the harder version they apparently wish Kerman had to face. Her time in prison was not as gut-wrenching as it is for so many others, but that in no way makes it an easy thing to face. I think the fact that she at least took the time to write the book about the subject and open some people’s eyes is worthy of applause. Also, if you can write a better memoir about your time in prison that will be more honest and open more eyes then great DO IT and I for one will thank you for trying to make the world a better place rather than just tearing it down because her life wasn’t hard enough for you to enjoy reading about at home.

For those of you complaining that she wrote it like pop culture maybe you should read what Kerman had to say on the subject: “I hoped if I told the story the right way, in a sort of a pop culture way, that I might be able to get somebody to pick up a book about prisons who wouldn’t otherwise read it.”

And last but not least Kerman did more than just write the book. She also serves on the Board of the Women’s Prison Association and teaches inmates in prisons and uses the fame from the book to speak out about the disparities and injustices of prison life. ...more

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Aug 02, 2016 Kristen Long rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2016

When Piper graduated from college in the early 1990s, she was looking for adventure, and she found it in Nora and a very short lived stint as a drug smuggler and money launderer. Fast forward ten years, and she’s working successfully, and lives with her fiance and with a great group of friends in New York. The drug ring that she was briefly associated with is caught and Piper finds herself stuck in a women’s prison. Her memoir focuses on her time and prison and what it’s like to be an outsider l ...more

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