Each week we’ll be featuring special posts about our top picks. Today, we can mosey over to NPR to listen to Piper (pictured) as well as read an excerpt of her book. To order the book, simply click on the cover in the sidebar.

Congrats, Piper!

“Smith graduate Piper Kerman was bored with her middle class life — so she joined a group of bohemian artists-turned-drug smugglers. After traveling to exotic resorts and smuggling a suitcase packed with drug money from Chicago to Brussels, she broke free from the drug trade and found a new life, normal jobs and a blooming romance.

But 10 years later, federal officers knocked on her door. Kerman pleaded guilty to drug smuggling and money laundering and went on to serve time in a federal women’s prison in Danbury, Conn.

In her memoir, Orange Is The New Black: My Year In A Women’s Prison, Kerman recounts a year in which she learned to clean her cell with maxipads, to wire a light fixture, and to make prison cheesecake — all while finding camaraderie with women from all walks of life.” – NPR

For the full story, audio and excerpt, go here.