In 2014, novelist and writing teacher Leslie Schwartz (Angels Crest) was arrested for drunk driving and sentenced to 90 days in the overcrowded Los Angeles County jail. She'd been sober for at least a decade when she relapsed into drug and alcohol addiction for more than a year. By the time she accepted a plea bargain to serve six weeks, she was six months sober. "The experience of being caged was soul crushing," she writes. "Living through this experience exposed me to new levels of human cruelty." During her incarceration, she was allowed to read 21 books. "Each taught me what I needed to learn at the moment," she writes.
Reading brings Schwartz hope and transforms her thinking about her fortitude, self-worth and bravery. When she and some of the other prisoners read their books aloud to each other, friendships are forged. "A new knowledge took shape," she writes, "a deeper peeling back of my complacency, ushered in on the spines of our books." Among the books that give her insight about her life and choices are Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Anthony Doerr's All the Light We Cannot See, Laura Hillenbrand's Unbroken, Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome and especially Ruth Ozeki's A Tale for the Time Being--"Quite literally I knew after having read it I was a different person."
Schwartz's razor-sharp observations on life behind bars, the prison system and the women caught in an endless cycle of abuse, addiction and incarceration is captivating and tremendously moving. Her sobering tale is beautifully told. --Kevin Howell, independent reviewer and marketing consultant