Read:

The Middle of Everywhere: The World's Refugees Come to Our Town by Mary Pipher

I had to read this book for my Migrating Memories anthropology class. The book was fairly good; 3.5/5 stars. Usually the books that I read for my classes are dense and boring, but this one wasn't too bad. Pipher is a psychologist and cultural broker for the refugees of Lincoln, Nebraska. She writes this book not as a academic resource, but to be read by everyone.
My opinion of the book is slightly biased since a) I work as a tutor at a local elementary school in the ELL classes. Many of my students are refugees because our city is a resettlement city. b) I'm interested in refugee law and policy and am considering taking that route once law school comes my way.
The book is equal parts refugee stories of personal loss and acculturation experience, exposé on the ugliness that often occurs in our society, life lessons that Pipher has taken from her experiences and wants us to have. The first 9 chapters are extremely interesting in that they detail her experiences in working with refugees of all ages. Naturally the stories range from hilarious to heartbreaking. There were quite a few times I found myself thinking, "wow... I never realized how 'such and such' is culturally ingrained" or "what. the. fuck?" The stories of loss, death, rape, and violence are pretty hard to get through sometimes. After reading about one particular woman I was filled with such deep sadness that I had to put the book down for a bit and just think about how lucky I am and if it were me, would I still be living today.
Unfortunately, chapters 10 -12 are extremely preachy. Perhaps coming from a family of immigrants myself (meaning... that my mom is an immigrant from the Philippines, not that my great great great great grandwhoever's came over on the Nina) I found myself feeling like she was talking down to me... as if I didn't already realize that American life is paradoxical. Sometimes I found her generalizing Americans and our culture or to be a little old-fashioned in her views of the internet and its function. She essentially said that the internet is not a community. To a certain extent I completely understand where she's coming from: you cannot substitute real people and relationships with interweb friends and family. People need personal contact. However, I don't think Pipher quite realizes the sort of ... comfort (?) that can come from an internet community. When I was initially going through my "OMG I think I might be a bisexual!!!" identity crises way back when MSN messenger and dial-up internet ruled my 8th/9th grade life, it was not my friends and family (mind you I come for a small rural town in Indiana) that I went to for consolation, help, advice, etc. It was the INTERNET! In a Sex and Gender course I took last year we read a book of personal stories of various transpeople in various stages of transition. So many of them said that the internet was one of the most helpful things in finding people to talk with, information, and feeling like a human again.
I was also extremely annoyed by her constant quoting of other authors and scholars. I love quotes, but seriously I felt like ever moral lesson started with: "So and So said that ....."
Would I recommend this book? Meh. I would probably guess that there are better written books about refugee tales. However, if time is on your hands I definitely think the first 9 chapters are worth a read... especially any of the personal life stories.