Category: Book Reviews

House of Leaves

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Our book club’s first unofficial discussion for the year was “House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski, and I had gotten the book with the intention of joining the discussion last Friday, but I wasn’t able to finish it in time so I stayed home (in fear of discussion spoilers) to make some headway on the book. I did finish it a few days later, and I was well and truly befuddled.

In “House of Leaves,” multiple narratives converge to tell us the strange story of a young man (Johnny Truant) who comes across a manuscript by his old neighbor, Zampano. Zampano has written a study of what appears to be a non-existent film (“The Navidson Record,” a Blair Witch-y documentary by award-winning photographer Will Navidson about a house that is (*gasp*) bigger on the inside, with closets and hallways popping up and disappearing every so often.

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EDSA Reads

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I was only a year old when the EDSA Revolution happened, and what I knew of it, I learned in history class: the Martial Law, the assassination of Ninoy Aquino, the snap elections, the military standoff, and the People Power.

While I have always been thankful to the generation that took to the streets to fight for the freedom that I enjoy as a Filipino today (traffic-geddon notwithstanding :s), I am glad that we have access to materials in commemoration of the EDSA revolution, giving us a chance to revisit this chapter of Philippine history, and read about the stories that should never be forgotten.

In honor of the EDSA revolution, here’s a roundup of EDSA-themed reading: “EDSA Uno: Narrative and Analysis with Notes on Dos & Tres” by Angela Stuart-Santiago, “The Untold Story of Imelda Marcos”/”Imelda Marcos: The Rise and Fall of One of the World’s Most Powerful Women” by Carmen Navarro Pedrosa; “Salingkit” by Cyan Abad-Jugo; “Isang Harding Papel” by Augie Rivera and Rommel Joson, and “EDSA” by Russell Molina and Sergio Bumatay III.

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Roundup: Books about Books

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If there’s one thing I love more than books, it’s books about books. For a book lover, there’s always extra pleasure to be derived from books that deal with bookstores and libraries, bookish characters, and paragraphs and paragraphs that wax poetic about books (*sigh*).

I’ve read a bunch of them in the last few months, so I’ve put together some capsule reviews for you. Included in this selection are: “The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry” by Gabrielle Zevin; “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-hour Bookstore” and “Ajax Penumbra: 1969” by Robin Sloan; “The Library of Unrequited Love” by Sophie Divry; “The Strange Library” by Haruki Murakami; and “84, Charing Cross Road” by Helene Hanff.

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Reading the Rosales Saga

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When my book club, Flips Flipping Pages, held a Rosales Saga readalong last year, I jumped on the chance to acquaint myself with National Artist F. Sionil Jose’s work, because while I’ve read his newspaper articles and even dropped by his book shop once in a blue moon, I had never read any of his novels.

The Rosales Saga is considered F. Sionil Jose’s masterpiece, composed of five books: “Po-on,” “Tree,” “My Brother, My Executioner,” “The Pretenders” and “Mass.” Set in F. Sionil Jose’s hometown of Rosales, Pangasinan, the series revolves around several generations of two families, the peasant Samsons and the wealthy Asperris.

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