Tuesday, April 25, 2023
7:30 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. (EDT)
Wally's Bookshelf is a casual book discussion led by a Wabash faculty or staff member via Zoom and provides participants the opportunity to connect with fellow Little Giants. Participants are required to procure and read the book, but the virtual discussion is free.
Join Dr. Jane Hardy for a discussion on the novel Make Your Home Among Strangers by Jennine Capó Crucet.
When Lizet—the daughter of Cuban immigrants and the first in her family to graduate from high school—is secretly accepted to an ultra-elite college, her parents are furious at her decision to leave Miami. Just weeks before she's set to start school, her parents divorce and her father sells her childhood home, leaving Lizet, her mother, and Lizet's older sister scrambling for a place to live.
Amid this turmoil, Lizet begins her first semester at Rawlings College, but the privileged environment feels utterly foreign, as does her new awareness of herself as a minority. Struggling to cope, she returns to Miami for a surprise Thanksgiving visit, only to be overshadowed by the arrival of Ariel Hernandez, a young boy whose mother died fleeing with him from Cuba on a raft. The ensuing immigration battle puts Miami in a glaring spotlight, captivating the nation and entangling Lizet's entire family. Pulled between life at college and her family's needs, Lizet is faced with difficult decisions that will change her life forever. Urgent and mordantly funny, Make Your Home Among Strangers tells the new story of what it means to be American today.
Dr. Jane Hardy
Jane Hardy is Associate Professor of Spanish and Chair of the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures, where she teaches classes in Spanish language and linguistics. Her professional interests include second language acquisition, language teaching methodology, and intercultural competence. Because of her passion for study abroad, she has accompanied several groups of students on immersion trips to Ecuador, and she is a long-time member of Wabash’s Off-Campus Study Committee. Her greatest honor since joining the Wabash faculty in 2006 was receiving the McLain-McTurnan-Arnold Excellence in Teaching Award in 2021.