We waited and waited, and not so patiently, but season four of Orange Is the New Black is finally available, and what a season it was! If you haven’t watched it all then I have tried to keep this blog relatively spoiler free as we look at the books of OITNB Season 4!
Based on the memoir of the same name, Orange is the New Black is now in its fourth season, and though it’s now veered from the memoir, it still makes compulsive viewing tackling hard hitting issues like social justice, stigma and more. It has humour, drama, romance and more, but what it also has in spadefuls is books! Now I’ve binge watched the entire series, we have a new addition of the Prison Book Club for you!
Piper Chapman
The season kicks off to a great start for the book club with Funny Girl by Nick Hornsby in a conversation with Yoga Jones who declares she liked High Fidelity by the same author. However, it’s the only book we see her read all season, in a run of episodes that definitely has the focus elsewhere! Anyone else want to slap Piper almost every episode this season?
Red
In episode two we saw a couple of books featured, with Red’s first reading appearance too as she settles down to read the poetry selection by Janice Silverman Rebibo, My Beautiful Ballooning Heart. Then in episode 4 we see Red in the kitchen office reading the copy of Essentials of Italian Cooking given to her by Marcella in season 3. She’s pretty relaxed with her feet up but all that is about to change as Vause has a secret to share.
Red loves her memoirs, having read a couple now and in episode nine we see her toss a copy of Wasted; A Memoir of Anorexia and Bulimia by Marya Hornbacher on her bunk as she finds Piper asleep. However my favourite book reference this series from Red comes later, at the end of the season, where tragic events see her gather the prisoners in the garden. Here she reads a passage from Anne Lamott’s Bird by Bird. I’m fairly sure sales of that have spiked in the last few weeks, because the scene really sells the book in the most beautiful way (I just had something in my eye, honest!).
Black Cindy
We see quite a lot from Black Cindy this season, and it’s little wonder on an entire season that is fuelled on race and differences. With new prisoners arriving, in episode two we see Cindy give her new room mate Abdullah a rather chilly welcome, and as she’s doing so she’s reading What Makes Sammy Run by Budd Shulberg.
In episode five Cindy returns to her bunk where she finds Abdullah reading Emotional Intelligence 2.0, but she’s unlikely to get much peace. Thankfully by episode six Cindy has warmed to Abdullah a little and we see her reading in the bunk, again and this time it’s the fantastic Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, New York Times Bestseller in her hands. In the same episode she asks Abdullah if she has read Going Clear by Lawrence Wright, a book on Scientology.
Cindy’s final book reference comes in the last episode in a conversation with Watson as they are laughing at Abdullah. The pair are ribbing the prisoner about her hijab and reference both Raggedy Ann and Little Red Riding Hood.
Poussey and Soso hardly spend a moment apart in season 4 and having always loved Poussey, by mid-season I had decided she was one of my favourite ever television characters. This is the season we learn about Poussey and learn more of her back story. In episode three we see Poussey and Soso fall out, in an argument based in stereotype (and Soso’s inability to stop talking). Soso finds Poussey in her cell where she’s reading Bad Kid, a memoir by David Crabb and they make amends. In the same episode we see her return The Longest Way Home by Andrew McCarthy to a shelf in the prison library.
In episode 5 the pair are found hiding out in the library having a discussion about their future where Poussey references Rainer Maria Rilke; Letters to a Young Poet . Eventually they realise they have company and go and help Aledia who’s trying to improve her maths and science with a stack of educational workbooks that I’m not going to list! However in the same conversation, Poussey is holding a copy of Pecheur d’Islande by Pierre Loti.
Poussey and Soso
Poussey
In episode nine, and back in the library where Poussey works we see her talking to the notorious Judy King, and the eagle eyed will have noticed both The Great Gatsby by Fitzgerald and World Fall by Douglas Niles behind her on the shelf. Continuing the same conversation we see behind her, The Iliad by Homer, Prescription for Excellence by Joseph Michelli and The Strain by Guilermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan. Judy King is like a dog with a bone and as she continues to pester Poussey we get to see even more books, this time Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D James, The Discipline of Teams by Jon. R Katzenback and Our Endangered Values by Jimmy Carter, before we finish with a final glimpse at Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
In the final episode we see Poussey in flashback form, on the Subway in New York, watching a woman read The Yiddish Policeman’s Union by Michael Chabon. Episode 13 was amazing, and it was hard to focus on the books!
Suzanne is seen with a fair few books during season four of Orange is the New Black, you could say she’s overwhelmed with the number of books pressing down on her! The first book we see her with, she is actually reading, and it’s Dhalgren by Samuel R. Delany in episode four.
By episode ten tensions are increasing as we get ready for the finale, and we see Taystee and Suzanne have a roundabout discussion about representation in modern media. During this chat, Suzanne references the Good Witch Glinda, a clear reference to Frank Baum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Then in the very next episode during another discussion there’s a reference to The Hobbit, one of a couple in season four.
‘Crazy Eyes’ Suzanne
‘Crazy Eyes’ Suzanne
In episode thirteen, Suzanne loses it in true Suzanne style and it involves books, lots of them, first in a scene in Poussey’s bunk where I spotted Golding’s Lord of the Flies, Tolkien’s The Silmarillion, Jane Austen’s Emma and The Forgotten Affairs of Youth by Alexander McCall Smith being tossed around. Suzanne then delves under Poussey’s bunk and finds what she calls ‘The VIP Library Room’ pulling out To Kill a Mockingbird, Moby Dick, and Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. Suzanne’s wobbly continues through the episode until she finds herself surrounded by far too many books to mention, but I did notice Orwell’s 1984, and Daddies and Daughters by Carmen Renee Berry and Lynn Barrington.
Officer Bayley
We see a lot of Officer Bayley in this season, and you’d have to be the most hardened watcher to not end up feeling incredibly sorry for how things turn out for him. He’s clearly a reader though and in episode six we see him reference several books from a stack in the library. He asks if he can borrow The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothuss, but also mentions Wise Man’s Fear by the same author, in a stack of books where we also see Redwall by Brian Jacques, Caravans by James A. Michener, and One of Us by Michael Marshall Smith.
In episode 11 we see Bayley chatting with Coates, in what is a scene full of comic light relief in a season that is fairly heavy. Bayley leaves King’s It with Coates in the garden, and then leaves him alone in the dark to read it.
Season four was completely jam-packed with books, they were literally raining down on your head, and the references didn’t stop there! Episode three saw a Game of Thrones reference from Taystee, which maybe should have been a pre-cursor on what to expect from the season. In episode six we see a chat between the Latinas where several James Bond novels are referenced, before later seeing Hapakuka reading How to Stop Worrying and Start Living by Dale Carnegie. Episode even saw Aslan from The Chronicles of Narnia compared to white supremacists, then more of The Hobbit and the whole trilogy from Nicky and Big Boo.
And who could forget the sharp intake of breath collectively heard from all readers as Sister Laura Ingalls tore a page from The Bible, King James version?
That was a huge number of books, so many we couldn’t feature them all and that was just from season four of Orange is the New Black. Check you can check out the books from all seasons of OITNB here.
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