Your Search Results
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Politics & governmentSome Are Smarter Than Others
The History of Marcos' Crony Capitalism
by Ricardo Manapat
Some Are Smarter Than Others irrefutably exposed the political and economic infrastructure of plunder supporting the Marcos dictatorship. Yet these are now denied and the unrepentant Marcoses in their manipulation of current politics have led the country again to Martial Law (in Mindanao) and to appalling impunity.
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FictionThe Betrayed
A Novel
by Reine Arcache Melvin
Set in a time of dictatorship and political upheaval, The Betrayed tells the story of two sisters who love the same man. Their passion threatens to lead them to betray not only each other but all that their father stood for. Shy, idealistic Pilar initially resolves to carry on her father’s fight against the dictator, while her flamboyant older sister Lali reacts by marrying the enemy—Arturo, the dictator’s godson. Each tries to find their place in this violent world, but can they withstand the corruption of politics and the relentless pull of their own desires? What price must one pay for passion?
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FictionJuly 2020What It Means to Be Malaya
A Novel
by Emmily Magtalas Rhodes
What It Means To Be Malaya by Emmily Magtalas Rhodes follows the moral and psychological growth of Bunny, a young woman on the brink of adulthood as she negotiates her various relationships with her family and with friends in school. The popular and attractive Malaya stands out among these friends. A sensitive introvert who dreads socializing and endures the sterility of a regimented life with her mother, Bunny sees Malaya as the epitome of unfettered youth, who awakens in her a yearning to belong. The novel is a social commentary that holds a mirror to Philippine society, casting a critical eye on our definition of success; obsession with beauty contests; on beauty-enhancing products; on Western standards of beauty and fashion; on the advertising and PR industry; on church-going people unaware and unmindful of the disconnect between their religious practice and their behavior toward other persons. All told, an engaging, compelling read. —Susan Lara, Award-Wining Fictionist
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FictionBroken Islands
by Criselda Yabes
Set in the aftermath of Typhoon Yolanda, Broken Islands is about two women—Luna and Alba—whose lives become entangled through their occupation of a house and their relationships with each other and with the Cimafranca paterfamilias Manoy, who is uncle to one and amo to the other. In this beautifully written and realized novel, the characters are as vividly rendered as the Borbon (Cebu ca. 2015) they inhabit, and as complex. The novel, particularly the sections on Typhoon Yolanda and the bungled rescue and reconstruction efforts in its wake, is notable for marrying literary sensibility and expression with journalism's fidelity to facts and on-the-ground observation. Exploring issues of class and gender hierarchy and inequality, the novel refuses easy (re)solutions, offering instead a subtle, dark-tinged vision of our broken islands. - Caroline S. Hau
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FictionThe Age of Umbrage
by Jessica Zafra
Guadalupe, 15, is confused. She grew up in the house of one of the richest families in the world . . . in the servants’ quarters with her mother, the family cook. The life of luxury is all she knows, but it isn’t really her life. Unhappy in school, invisible at home, she lives inside her head, in a world made of books and movies. Outside, Manila is in turmoil: protest rallies, a bloodless revolution, coup attempts, and the Web hasn’t even arrived yet. When is Guada is going to leave her imaginary shelter and get a life?
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FictionA Natural History of Empire
by Dominic Sy
Fraying at the edge of a life lived uselessly, an old man ponders over things that were and things that may have been. A vanishing guerilla, a knife fight across the ocean, a chat with a friend come back from the dead. In these tales of doubles, delusions, and self-deceit, A Natural History of Empire challenges us to question who we truly are and who we want to become.
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FictionCity Stories
by Angelo R. Lacuesta
When I was young I dreaded leaving my city for the countryside. It meant leaving the space around me: a small desk, a twin-sized bed, and the wall beside it, covered with posters of my favorite bands. There was also the street I lived on, my best friend’s house two blocks away, the store another block after that. A little farther out was the avenue lined with the grocery stores, cafés, and videogame arcades I regularly visited. Across it was the school I attended. And just a bus and jeepney ride away was the mall I went to with friends for ice cream and sausage sandwiches and comic books. The only time I was ever happy to leave was on the rare occasion I was visiting another city—often more advanced and more exciting, with skylines that soared higher, with brighter lights and busier streets. But even there I felt right at home, surrounded by millions of people and their millions of stories, in which the city became the foreground or the background, the hero or the villain, the familiar or the alien, the inexhaustible or the disposable. In this collection, I’ve chosen to briefly revisit the cities that I’ve written about across two decades of writing. Most of the stories have been extensively rethought and rewritten, and I hope that they offer a fresh experience to old readers, young citizens, and new visitors alike. Welcome to my cities, and thank you for your stay.
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Sociology & anthropologyTales from the Southern Kingdom
by Virginia M. Villanueva
Tales from the Southern Kingdom tells and retells old and rich stories about the Tausug from Sulu and the Sama from Tawi-tawi for today’s young people.
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Tingle
Anthology of Pinay Lesbian Writing
by Jhoanna Lynn B. Cruz
Most of the forty-nine works in the book were specifically solicited from the writers I know in response to the question, “What makes you tingle as a lesbian?” Literally, the sensation of “slight prickles, stings, or tremors,” the excitement. I purposely didn’t give any more qualifiers to that prompts. I wanted the writers themselves to define the terms and enact them on the page. And while the word “tingle” is a homonym for the Tagalog word for “clitoris,” many of the pieces submitted were not about sex at all. But all the pieces are about a spark of recognition, whether at the beginning, the middle, or the end, that one loves a woman as a woman. Tingle is the flint. Here we are taking our stories of women loving women in our own hands and making ourselves visible on our own terms. When the initial thrill of desire is past, the tingle is ultimately the recognition that what we have found cannot remain in the dark—we must love and be loved in the light.
