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Looking Back


Ambeth R. Ocampo - 1990
    His wit, humor, keen observations and insights on Philippine history never fail to keep us entertained and informed.-Benedicto "Bencab" Cabrera, National Artist for the Visual ArtsHindsight is the lowest form of intelligence - except for historians. History is the collective memory of a nation but it has to be constantly rewritten. It is the historian's interpretation of,more often than not, questionable facts. A true historian must first get his facts from primary sources;second, be objectives; third, be interesting. Ambeth Ocampo's historical writings meet these three criteria. He is the historian to watch. -Alejandro R. Roces, National Artist for Literature

Twisted Flicks


Jessica Zafra - 2003
    Her critiques have the kind of bite that engages the readers with the sneer and snarl of an avid movie fan. Her readers and subjects, young and old, will be outraged and amused at her vicious takes on award-winning, top-grossing films.

Stupid Is Forever


Miriam Defensor Santiago - 2014
    People are puzzled how she can spontaneously make them laugh in the midst of national policy crises, and of real danger to her life as a corruption fighter.This book is a collection of jokes, one-liners, pick-up lines, conebacks and speeches delivered and/or curated by the beloved Senator. Also, inside are illustrations by Cj de Silva-Ong, Manix Abrera, Elbert Or, Rob Cham and more of the Philippines' best young illustrators.

Reportage on Lovers: A Medley of Factual Romances, Happy or Tragical, Most of Which Made News


Quijano de Manila - 1977
    Plus the portrait of a hip chick from then Swinging London as she discourses indelicately on a most delicate topic: the Filipino as Lover.

The Philippines Is Not a Small Country


Gideon Lasco - 2020
    Drawing from anthropology, history, contemporary events, popular culture, and the author’s field experiences and travels, the essays draw connections between nature and culture, self and society, the local and the global, as well as the past and the present in order to arrive at a deeper, fuller, critical, yet hopeful view of a country that is larger than many imagine it to be.Published in 2020.

Days of Disquiet, Nights of Rage: The First Quarter Storm and Other Related Events


Jose F. Lacaba - 1982
    "Of our journalists, one of the most able in the new style is Jose F. Lacaba. As TV and newsreel do, he puts you right on the scene... [H]e communicates the emotion, even the meaning of what's happening without having to spell it out." - Quijano de Manila

The Best of This Is A Crazy Planets


Lourd Ernest H. de Veyra - 2011
    His two-year-old blog This is a Crazy Planets has gained a large following on SPOT.ph, and his best works are now compiled in a book of the same title. With Lourd's various entries on everyday life's absurdities, This is a Crazy Planets mirrors Filipino pop culture in a way that is both humorous and endearing. "Lourd is able to say what we're dying to say, but can't-or can't articulate well enough," says Sison.

The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos


Carmen Navarro Pedrosa - 1969
    As late as 1953, she was a starry-eyed, penniless, provincial lass in search of a good fortune in Manila. Then came Ferdinand E. Marcos, literally a knight in shining armor who rescued her from poverty and misery. "I will make you the First Lady of the land," he promised her.Complete, detailed replete with facts and documents which have been painstakingly hidden from the public by the administration's image-makers, her life story as told in generations. It explains Imelda's much vaunted charisma which in President Marcos' own words garnered one million votes in the 1965 elections.She is a person who is difficult to be indifferent to. This book tells us why.

The Philippines: A Continuing Past


Renato Constantino - 1978
    That past assumed a new dimension when seen from the people's viewpoint. The present work undertakes to prove that the essence of these past relations has persisted in the present era. The authors have therefore chosen to call this period The Continuing Past in order to emphasize the fact that while there are apparent changes, the new refinements of external control and exploitation merely conceal the persisting subjection. The authors express the hope that their "re-examination of the Philippine neocolonial experience...and the brief focus on evolving American imperialist objectives and the techniques used to attain them may not only reveal this historical period in a new light but may help to provide the basis for new historic initiatives on the part of the people in the attainment of their final liberation."As in the previous volume, events and personalities are subjected to stringent analysis from the point of view of the people's larger interest, thus giving the layman a better grasp of the forces that influence contemporary society. The process of demystification proceeds with greater intensity as sacred cows are re-evaluated in terms of the people's long-range objectives.The Continuing Past is a very relevant work; and also irreverent as the previous writings of Constantino have been.

Bulaklak ng Maynila


Domingo G. Landicho - 1995
    Written with extraordinary insight, honesty, and a master writer's creative sensibility.

Some Days You Can’t Save Them All


Ronnie E. Baticulon - 2019
    But a physician’s incorrect diagnosis will always be a matter of life and death. Dr. Baticulon’s dispatches from the country’s leading public hospital are told in language that requires no further acrobatics. How do you tell a mother that the smiling ten-year-old boy in her arms will not survive the following week? How do you tell a little girl she’ll never be able to go home to play because her parents can’t afford P54,000 for her surgery? How do you live with yourself after breaking a promise to save an eight-year-old boy’s life? Like the trenches of war zones, the operating room is the frontline of life’s most difficult questions. Here are a neurosurgeon’s gripping ruminations on hope and loss."—Lourd De Veyra"Ronnie Baticulon follows in the footsteps of many other physicians for whom the task of understanding and healing humanity did not stop at the clinic or the operating room. They used words and language not only for their patients but also for themselves—a long and distinguished line from Rabelais, Chekhov, and Maugham to Michael Crichton, Richard Selzer, Oliver Sacks, and of course our own Jose Rizal and Arturo Rotor. Dr. Baticulon is a worthy addition to that tradition."—Jose Y. Dalisay Jr.

Dear Distance


Luis Joaquin M. Katigbak - 2016
    So the kind and character of his works: very rare, exceptional, unique, maverick, exceedingly original fiction: rara avis that's a quantum leap away and departure... At least three or four in this collection already strike one as veritable classics." - GREGORIO C. BRILLANTES

A Question of Heroes


Nick Joaquín - 1977
    Through his critical essays on ten key figures in Philippine history, Nick Joaquin provides a fresh point of view on Philippine heroes and their role in the Philippine revolutionary tradition.

Parang Kayo Pero Hindi


Noringai - 2013
    Others call it MU or mutual understanding. Pseudo relationships. Pseudo boyfriends. Flings. Almost like a relationship, but not quite. It is a phase where the persons involved are more than friends, but not quite lovers.

The Best American Sports Writing 2007


David Maraniss - 2007
    Guest editor David Maraniss, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author, has assembled a fresh crop of the people and stories that dominated the sports world in 2006.Michael Lewis gives a behind-the-scenes look at the legendary football coach Bill Parcells. Bob Hohler delves in the murky waters of modern amateur basketball, where teams blatantly dole out cash to players and shoe companies set their sights on prospects as young as twelve. William Rhoden traces the fate of an unknown filly injured on the racetrack. Jeff MacGregor describes the unforgettable Friars Club roast of boxing's provocative promoter Don King. Daniel Coyle follows a forty-year-old Slovene soldier who might be the world’s best ultra-endurance athlete. L. Jon Wertheim tells of a young pro-basketball player who found himself wrestling the shoe bomber Richard Reid to the ground during a transatlantic flight. And Derek Zumsteg provides a hilarious and utterly original in-depth account of the baseball career of Bugs Bunny, “the greatest banned player ever.”These pieces and many more go beyond the spotlight, revealing the people and issues that make sports so relevant and important to all of us.The white coon / Larry Brown --Bugs Bunny, greatest banned player ever / Derek Zumsteg --Ready for some fútbol? / Oscar Casares --The game of the year / Chris Ballard --Filling in the pieces of Jake Scott / Dave Hyde --Fading away / Wright Thompson --Deal of the century / John Klima --An unknown filly dies, and the crowd just shrugs / William C. Rhoden --Let us now raze famous men / Jeff MacGregor --Only medal for Bode is fool's gold / Sally Jenkins --That which does not kill me makes me stranger / Daniel Coyle --Polite when in neutral / Mimi Swartz --Snook / Ian Frazier --Blank Monday / William Finnegan --What keeps Bill Parcells awake at night / Michael Lewis --The madness of John Chaney / Robert Huber --The real deal in so many ways / Michael Wilbon --$neaker war / Bob Hohler --Baseball for life / Sara Corbett --A new game plan / Eli Saslow --The Saturday game / Eric Neel --Playing 4 keeps / Bryan Smith --The ultimate assist / L. Jon Wertheim --In Iraq, soccer field is no longer a refuge / Bruce Wallace --A moment of silence / Steve Friedman --Team Hoyt starts again / John Brant --The big show by little people / Paul Cullum --Talking turkey / Bill Buford