I picked up Orange is the New Black by Piper Kerman because I was between books. I watched the first season of the television show and found it pretty interesting. I had tried to watch season two, but felt it was really getting “out there.”

I really just wanted to see how close the TV series was to the book. To say it is loosely based on the book may even be a stretch. That said, the book is MUCH better than the show. In retrospect, the more the series departed from the book, the less I liked it.

This is an interesting book. It is interesting for the same reasons the show seemed interesting. You get an inside look at an upper middle-class white women doing time in a federal prison.

Of course, I did the audiobook version and as such, it went fast. This happens when the book is interesting or I have a lot of driving. My mileage wasn’t abnormally high and I finished it fast. That means it was a good read.

by Chris Doelle