I Did Not Expect to Like this Book: "Orange is the New Black"....

..but at the core of it, Piper Kerman authored the book with the voice of a very likeable young woman on a mission which includes increasing the reader's awareness of the life of women in the Federal Correction system. She repeatedly accepted responsibility for the errant crime she committed: helping to smuggle drugs and cash to and from the US. She was a small cog in the giant illegal drug industry, she pleaded "guilty" and agreed to help the government in prosecuting other members of the ring. She says that every crime has, at it's heart, lack of empathy (among other things). As a very young woman, without a clear direction and seeking adventure, she fell in with an older woman who gradually recruited her into the drug smuggling ring; after a year or so of travel and wild living, Piper managed to break up her relationship with the woman and move on. Ten years later, the Feds came calling; Piper served an interesting though difficult 13 months in minimum security prison; the book details her experiences and the lessons learned. There was a fascinating chapter on the experience of transport via "Con Air" and incarceration in the Chicago Metropolitan Correction center; from an office window at my work, I can look down on the sky-high prison recreation space at that facility.