M. Daniel Carroll R., Christians at the Border

Christians at the Border is a thorough and timely study of the issue of immigration in America. Written by an Old Testament scholar who is a Guatemalan-American, and who lives and teaches on both sides of our Southern border, the perspectives Carroll R. brings are essential. He carefully looks at the situation today, showing the great complexity which must be comprehended as we look at immigration (including things like where people come from and why the come, the economic pressures on both sides of the borders, and the broader history of immigration in America). He then looks back into the Old and New Testaments to see how their witness can be brought to bear. In both of these areas, carefully looking at today's context and exploring the biblical context and teaching, the book shines.

The fundamental insight that Carroll R. uses to reframe the debate, and one that I think is essential as we move forward, is to recognize that the debate today must be shifted from one about "immigration" as a concept to a debate and discussion about immigrants, human beings made in God's image who deserve our respect, care, and concern. Especially as Christians, we must come to grips with the sojourners among us (who are often, incidentally, fellow Christians), and must seek both temporary and long-term solutions that create and maintain justice as well as express and embody our identity as God's agents on earth.

The discussion in America today about immigration is a great opportunity for the body of Christ to exemplify what it means to love God and neighbor. There is no doubt that we must get beyond entrenched political positions and party alignments, as well as beyond oversimplifications and false dichotomies and seek new ways of of living and acting as Christians in the world. As Carrol R. concludes, "The decisions that are made and courses of action that are recommended [in a Christian approach to immigration] should be commensurate with the life of Jesus—his actions, his teaching, his cross."

I highly and unreservedly recommend this book. It is very readable, just as it is also thorough and careful. First-hand experience is melded nicely with research, and careful biblical reasoning is brought to bear with wisdom on a divisive issue with an always irenic yet prophetic tone. Read this book and be challenged!

Anthony Swofford, Jarhead

This is not an easy book to read. That doesn't mean it isn't well-written, which it is, or that it lacks action, because it doesn't. Instead, it is an often uncomfortable book. It dispels the illusion we all harbor to one degree or another that war is noble and that warriors are likewise noble. Instead, Swofford recounts his own experience in the Marine Corps, first as a line grunt in training and then as a member of the elite Surveillance and Target Acquisition Platoon (that is, a member of the sniper squad). He tells with stark honesty of life in the corps, the hard men living a hard life. The brutality and futility are almost palpable. Gone, or at least greatly altered, are pictures of the upright and driven soldier, fighting selflessly for the greater good. The portrait Swofford builds, of himself and his fellow platoonmates, is one of great skill coupled with often senseless violence: violence itself becomes a rush, an addiction. Soldiers fight because they have no choice, because even though they wish they had never joined they're stuck there now, and because that is where the outlet for their addiction is provided.

Along with his colorful portrait of life in the Marine Corps, Swofford recounts his own participation in and understanding of the first Gulf War, an interesting inside portrait of a quick victory to reclaim valuable oil fields.

Both as a piece of first-hand history, and as an insider tale of life at war, this is an important book. Especially for the myths it dispels, it is important reading. Because as long as we glamorize war, we don't really comprehend it, and as long as we valorize the experiences of our soldiers, we won't really be able to even begin to both honor their service and enfold them again into society. And, maybe most important of all, if we don't come face to face with the yawing void that is war, with all of its tragedy, violence, and futility, we will be too quick to go down that path again and again.

Norman Ollestad, Crazy for the Storm

In this well-written account, Norman Ollestad tells the compelling tale of his own survival of a small plane crash high in the San Gabriel Mountains of California. As an 11-year-old boy, he was the lone survivor of the crash, and had to make his way down the steep face of the mountain alone in order to escape the deadly cold. Interwoven with this narrative is the larger tale of his relationship with his dad.

Normand Ollestad Sr. was a driven man, who loved to push the envelope in skiing, in surfing, and in life, and who took his son along with him, willing or not. These experiences of being forced to push his own endurance, to learn things that didn't interest him, caused a lot of resentment in young Norman Jr. But as he recounts the tale of his survival, he comes to realize that though his dad was "crazy for the storm," for the rush of survival and the thrill of the perfect ride, it was his dad's drivenness and the extremes that he too experienced under his dad's compulsion that got him through. "I knew that what he had put me through saved my life" (210).

The memoir is an entertaining read. The harrowing fight for survival high in the mountains drives the story, but the interwoven tales of Norm's upbringing in the surfing and skiing world are no less interesting, and the two halves of the tale come together nicely to paint a fascinating though tragic picture of this complicated relationship of father and son. It raises, without answering, some interesting and important questions about fathers and sons, parents and children, especially with regard to how to mold and shape a future generation and ensure they learn and experience things that will be important building blocks for life without removing freedom. The epilogue in which Norman talks about his relationship with his own son and the setting in which he wrote the book provides a nice tie up for these questions. In all, it is a very worthwhile book.