Every beginning of November, Filipinos reenact the ancient tradition of going home to one’s province, to the land that birthed us, to the cemeteries that still house the fleshly remains of our ancestors. This story begins, and ends, in such a graveyard. Books and plays inspired by them are always two different art forms, yet… Read More Balete / Tree : F. Sionil Jose’s Word Made Flesh by Tanghalang Pilipino
If author Ronaldo S. Vivo Jr.’s aim is to leave readers devastated, if the intention is to give us no respite from cruelty or from descriptions of material and moral filth, if the purpose is to shove this country’s reality in our faces when we would prefer to look away, then The Power Above Us… Read More The Power Above Us All: Today’s Trauma in Translation
Douglas Candano’s collection of eight stories are all set in one universe that feels so much like ours, but defy Newtonian physics in its population that includes amalgamations of aswang and the Chinese jiangshi, as well as museums that house experiences rather than relics, and historical events with a few monsters thrown in the mix.… Read More Infinite Lives, Infinite Deaths: Chillingly Cold Prose Delivers 8 Doses of Fil-Chi Horror
My second book by Catherine Dellosa had me sobbing uncontrollably in the last couple of chapters, making my Sunday morning coffee a bit more salty than usual. It also has one of the most striking opening paragraphs I’ve ever come across: “Fate is fixed, love is a thunderstorm, and Cheetos are mankind’s greatest invention since… Read More The Summer of Letting Go: Catherine Dellosa Guides Us How to Deal with Loss and Love
“There was no measure for love of country except in sacrifice.” The beginning is all. The first scene in a play or a movie sets tone and mood, introduces characters and themes. For man, they say the infant is the father to the grownup. And for this widely-acknowledged literary masterpiece, Po-on is the first yet… Read More Po-on : The First/Last in F. Sionil Jose’s Saga
Author/podcaster/editor Lio Mangubat doesn’t make a habit of throwing things away, not old VHS tapes from his childhood, and certainly not the contents of his personal library. There is rhyme and reason behind his hoarding. Some of the author of Silk, Silver, Spices, Slaves‘ prized possessions include a 1988 issue of National Geographic with a… Read More Connecting the Philippines with the World: Lio Mangubat’s Love for History Shines Through in ‘Silk, Silver, Spices, Slaves’
“Even God can be felt in the heat of the sun or the bliss of the ocean. But what happens to your crypto when the circuits or blockchains are broken? What happens when the power goes out?” Sci-fi books are scarily prophetic. From the modern physics-defying vehicles and gadgets we take for granted, to the… Read More “God’s Ashes” is Sci-Fi with a Call to Action
Summit Books Editor and The Colonial Dept. podcaster Lio Mangubat has written a collection of thirteen essays which were originally broadcast in podcast form during the pandemic. Dalgona coffees and avocado toast lockdown projects are great, but perhaps don’t come close to what Mangubat has done: leave behind a tangible record of esoteric learning that… Read More Local yet Global : A Fun Book on Forgotten Tales from Philippine Colonial History
Words are magic and music by their own, but when you combine words plus the instantaneous visceral impact of a well-drawn comic … the result can be earth-shaking (as anyone who has turned THAT PAGE of the Watchmen graphic novel remembers!). It’s even more impactful when the stories and the artists are our very own!… Read More It’s Philippine International Comics Festival (PICOF) weekend!
Don’t you sometimes worry about what passes for YA nowadays? From toxic relationships to obscene violence (yes I’m glaring at you, ACOTAR, and let’s not even touch the steamy scenes), to books embracing woke-ness and every rage-filled controversy for the sake of being “edgy,” one can understand the controversy when discussing healthy book diets for… Read More For The Win is a rare drop of a YA book both computer gamers and their parents will love
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