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Home is where the heart is.
This month, we highlight Filipino authors in our Read Filipino collection, no matter where they are in the world. We are proud to feature books written by Filipinos coming from all different places, perspectives, and walks of life as they share the culture, diversity, and more often than not, the unfavorable realities of what it means to be Pinoy.
If you’re looking for a book to start browsing this August, Fully Booked wrapped up some Filipino authored titles you can enjoy reading for all kinds of #moods.
MOOD: Fictionalize memoir
I Was The President's Mistress!! by Miguel Syjuco
In this masterful and audacious novel, Miguel Syjuco’s signature style—hilarious, insightful, playful, provocative—animates thirteen indelible voices whose stories present a cross-section of a complicated society. I Was the President’s Mistress!! hurtles headlong into love, politics, faith, history, memory, and the ongoing war over who will tell the stories the world shall know as truth.
MOOD: Friendship and magic
Sugar and Spite by Gail D. Villanueva
Jolina can't take Claudine's bullying any longer! The taunts and teasing are too much. Though Jolina knows she's still in training to use her grandfather's arbularyo magic, she sneaks into his potions lab to get her revenge. Jolina brews a batch of gayuma, a powerful love potion. Magic comes with a cost and bad intentions beget bad returns. Controlling another person's ability to love -- or hate -- will certainly have consequences. The magic demands payment, and it is about to come for Jolina in the form of a powerful storm.
Magic and reality mingle in this brilliant new middle-grade novel by Gail D. Villanueva that asks whether it's ever okay to take away someone's free will.
MOOD: Delectable food with a hint of mystery
Arsenic and Adobo by Mia P. Manansala
This book will make you hungry… Consider yourself warned! Kidding aside, Arsenic and Adobo are a fun and humorous cozy mystery featuring family moments and of course, yummy Filipino dishes.
Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup and was asked to save her Tita Rosie’s failing restaurant. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case.
Both tasty and twisted, satisfaction will be served on a silver platter upon finishing this book.
MOOD: Light and feel-good
Hello, Universe by Erin Entrada Kelly
Heartwarming and empowering, Hello, Universe is a funny and easily-relatable story about unexpected friendships told from four intertwining points of view—two boys and two girls.
The 2018 Newbery Medal winner Hello, Universe celebrates bravery, friendship, and finding your inner bayani (hero). It’s the kind of book you’ll want to read to slow down after a long and tiring day.
MOOD: Literary fiction in action
The award-winning author Gina Apostol takes readers back to 1901 when Filipino revolutionaries attacked an American garrison by following the story of two women: a Filipino translator and an American filmmaker, who was working on a film script about a massacre during the Philippine-American War.
In what the New York Times calls a “bravura performance,” Apostol also shares that this historical fiction offers a new perspective on understanding our national hero, Jose Rizal—an interesting and explosive read told flawlessly with an inconspicuous mastery of storytelling.
MOOD: Suspense and thriller
Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan
If you’re looking for a Filipino mystery novel with a plot that will haunt you, Smaller and Smaller Circles could be what you’re looking for.
The winner of the Philippine National Book Award and Carlos Palanca Grand Prize, F.H. Batacan’s harrowing book follows two Catholic priests on the hunt through Manila for a brutal serial killer. It’s a contemporary Filipino detective novel that has a hint of suspense, crime, and mystery all in one book.
MOOD: Riveting literary criticism
How To Read Now by Elaine Castillo
How to Read Now explores the politics and ethics of reading, and insists that we are capable of something better: a more engaged relationship not just with our fiction and our art, but with our buried and entangled histories. Smart, funny, galvanizing, and sometimes profane, Castillo attacks the stale questions and less-than-critical proclamations that masquerade as vital discussion: reimagining the cartography of the classics, building a moral case against the settler-colonialism of lauded writers like Joan Didion, taking aim at Nobel Prize winners and toppling indie filmmakers, and celebrating glorious moments in everything from popular TV like The Watchmen to the films of Wong Kar-wai and the work of contemporary poets like Tommy Pico.
MOOD: Letting go and moving on
The Last Time I’ll Write About You by Dawn Lanuza
Short but heartfelt, The Last Time I’ll Write About You is a collection of poems on falling in love, painful heartbreaks, and moving on—finding the words you could be longing to say (or even hear).
Popular fiction and poetry author Dawn Lanuza featured beautiful and relatable poems that will serve as the perfect companion for anyone who has loved, lost, and emerged anew.
MOOD: Cookbook and memoir in one go
Amboy: Recipes from the Filipino-American Dream by Alexandra Cuerdo and Alvin Cailan
Amboy: Recipes from the Filipino-American Dream is a biography by Alvin Cailan, arguably the most high-profile chef in America’s Filipino food movement. When he opened the now-legendary Eggslut in Los Angeles, a foodie cult favorite specializing in affordable but sophisticated egg sandwiches, he took the food scene by storm.
This unique cookbook features scrumptious recipes and has a twist on Cailan’s personal experiences as an Amboy (the term for a Filipino raised in America) as he overcame cultural traditions and family expectations to find his path to success.
Watch the Fully Booked Chats with Alvin Cailan and discover more about the author, his book, and his life as a chef.
MOOD: Fun and child-like activities
Pan De Sal Saves the Day by Norma Olizon-Chikiamco
Kids and of course, kids at heart, will surely love this fun-filled book! Pan De Sal Saves the Day is a colorful bilingual Tagalog and English activity book that has games and puzzles.
The 32-page multicultural children’s book, designed for kids 4-8, highlights beautiful illustrations and interactive games. It also includes an answer key at the back to double-check answers and avoid frustration.
MOOD: Sci-fi, music, and imaginary worlds
Never Have I Ever by Isabel Yap
Spells and stories, urban legends and immigrant tales: the magic in Isabel Yap’s debut collection jumps right off the page, from the joy in her new novella, A Spell for Foolish Hearts to the terrifying tension of the urban legend Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez.
MOOD: Crime and thriller with Philippine folklore (in a graphic novel)
After Lambana by Eliza Victoria, Mervin Malonzo
On the shadowy, noir-tinged streets of Manila, multiple realities co-exist and intertwine as the two friends seek a cure for the magical malady. Slinky sirens and roaming wraith-like spirits populate a parallel world ruled by corruption and greed, which Conrad must enter to find the cure he seeks. He has little idea of the creatures he will encounter and the truths to be revealed along the way. Will Lambana spill its secrets and provide the healing balm Conrad needs? Or will he perish in the process?
Fans of Neil Gaiman, Emil Ferris, and Charles Burns will love love After Lambana!
MOOD: Self-discovery
Fairest: A Memoir by Meredith Talusan
The captivating novel is about a Filipino boy with albinism whose story travels from an immigrant childhood to Harvard to a gender transition and illuminates the illusions of race, disability, and gender.
A reflective book based on the life of Meredith Talusan’s experience as a transgender, Fairest is a beautifully written coming-of-age memoir and a story about the discovery of womanhood.
MOOD: Quick read on sisterhood and family
We Belong by Cookie Hiponia Everman
Interestingly, We Belong is a novel-in-verse that beautifully blends Filipino folklore and the migrant experience. It’s a story about Stella and Luna, who know that their mama, Elsie, came from the Philippines when she was a child, but they don’t know much else.
One night, they asked her to tell them a story and their mama spins two tales: that of her youth as a strong-willed middle child and refugee; and that of the young life of a Mayari, the mythical daughter of a god.
The prose is undeniably lovely and the novel stayed true to the Filipino culture and norms throughout the telltale.
MOOD: Grief, angst, and redemption
Patron Saints of Nothing by Randy Ribay
The story revolves around Jay Reguero, a typical teenager on his way to head the University of Michigan for college. When he discovers that his Filipino cousin, Jun, was murdered as part of the war on drugs, and no one in the family wants to talk about what happened, he travels to the Philippines to find out the real story.
If you’re on the lookout for a powerful and informative coming-of-age book, Patron Saints of Nothing offers nothing less but the best of both of those worlds: a haunting story about grief, growing up, and learning about yourself through discovering more about your culture.
MOOD: Nothing beats the classic
America is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan
First published in 1946, the autobiography of the well-known Filipino poet describes his boyhood in the Philippines, his voyage to America, and his years of hardship and despair as an itinerant following the harvest trail in the rural West.
Timeless in such a way that some of the circumstances Bulosan experienced are still relevant to the present-day time, America is in the Heart reveals the poet’s stoic voice to the terrible events he witnessed.
MOOD: Quick but wildly entertaining
Para Kay B is Ricky Lee, the award-winning scriptwriter, journalist, and playwright’s, first novel. It is a comical, cinematic, and entertaining read that will reveal to readers exotic episodes of both life and love. The book, written in both English and Filipino, tells the story of five women and their quest to find the meaning of love in their lives.
It’s quite short so you can most probably finish it in one sitting. After all, once you get a grip of it, you’ll find yourself lost in the world of Ricky Lee and Para Kay B.
Simon Jimenez
“This is when your life begins.”
Nia Imani is a woman out of place and outside of time. Decades of travel through the stars are condensed into mere months for her, though the years continue to march steadily onward for everyone she has ever known. Her friends and lovers have aged past her, and all she has left is work. Alone and adrift, she lives for only the next paycheck, until the day she meets a mysterious boy, fallen from the sky.
A boy, broken by his past.
Get The Vanished Birds: A Novel (Paperback) by Simon Jimenez and other science fiction and fantasy books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreMiguel Syjuco
Read the first few pages here.
First came the Sexy-Sexygate scandal. Then an impeachment trial. Finally, a battle royale for the presidency. At the center of this political typhoon is Vita Nova, the most famous movie star in the Philippines and a former paramour of the country’s most powerful man. Now, for the first time ever, she bares herself completely in a tell-all memoir that puts the sensational in sensationalistic.
Get I Was the President's Mistress!!: A Novel, International Edition, Signed Copy (Paperback) by Miguel Syjuco and other contemporary fiction books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreEliza Victoria
Immerse yourself in a fantasy world of Filipino myth, magic, and supernatural suspense!
Lambana—the realm of supernatural fairies known as Diwata—has fallen, and the Magic Prohibition Act has been enacted. To add to his troubles, there's something wrong with Conrad's heart and only magic can prolong his life. He teams up with Ignacio, a well-connected friend who promises to hook him up with the Diwata and their magical treatments—a quest that's not only risky but highly illegal!
Get After Lambana: A Graphic Novel: Myth and Magic in Manila (Paperback) by Eliza Victoria and other young adult books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreGail D Villanueva
Can a bully be defeated by a magical love potion?
Jolina can't take Claudine's bullying any longer! The taunts and teasing are too much. Though Jolina knows she's still in training to use her grandfather's arbularyo magic, she sneaks into his potions lab to get her revenge. Jolina brews a batch of gayuma, a powerful love potion.
And it works. The love potion conquers Claudine's hateful nature. In fact, Claudine doesn't just stop bullying Jolina -- now she wants to be Jolina's BFF, and does everything and anything Jolina asks.
Get Sugar and Spite, Signed Copy (Hardcover) by Gail D Villanueva and other intermediate books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreMeredith Talusan
Finalist for the 2021 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Nonfiction
A singular, beautifully written coming-of-age memoir of a Filipino boy with albinism whose story travels from an immigrant childhood to Harvard to a gender transition and illuminates the illusions of race, disability, and gender
Get Fairest: A Memoir (Paperback) by Meredith Talusan and other biography and memoir books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreMia P. Manansala
The first book in a new culinary cozy series full of sharp humor and delectable dishes—one that might just be killer...
When Lila Macapagal moves back home to recover from a horrible breakup, her life seems to be following all the typical rom-com tropes. She's tasked with saving her Tita Rosie's failing restaurant, and she has to deal with a group of matchmaking aunties who shower her with love and judgment. But when a notoriously nasty food critic (who happens to be her ex-boyfriend) drops dead moments after a confrontation with Lila, her life quickly swerves from a Nora Ephron romp to an Agatha Christie case.
Get Arsenic and Adobo: A Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery (Paperback) by Mia P. Manansala and other contemporary fiction books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreIsabel Yap
“Am I dead?” Mebuyen sighs. She was hoping the girl would not ask. Spells and stories, urban legends and immigrant tales: the magic in Isabel Yap’s debut collection jumps right off the page, from the joy in her new novella, “A Spell for Foolish Hearts” to the terrifying tension of the urban legend “Have You Heard the One About Anamaria Marquez.”
Get Never Have I Ever: Stories (Paperback) by Isabel Yap and other science fiction books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreCookie Hiponia Everman
An extraordinarily beautiful novel-in-verse, this important debut weaves a dramatic immigrant story together with Pilipino mythology to create something wholly new.
Stella and Luna know that their mama, Elsie, came from the Philippines when she was a child, but they don't know much else. So one night they ask her to tell them her story. As they get ready for bed, their mama spins two tales: that of her youth as a strong-willed middle child and immigrant; and that of the young life of Mayari, the mythical daughter of a god.
Get We Belong (Hardcover) by Cookie Hiponia Everman and other intermediate books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreRandy Ribay
A powerful coming-of-age story about grief, guilt, and the risks a Filipino-American teenager takes to uncover the truth about his cousin's murder.
Jay Reguero plans to spend the last semester of his senior year playing video games before heading to the University of Michigan in the fall. But when he discovers that his Filipino cousin Jun was murdered as part of President Duterte's war on drugs, and no one in the family wants to talk about what happened, Jay travels to the Philippines to find out the real story.
Get Patron Saints of Nothing (Paperback) by Randy Ribay and other young adult books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreDawn Lanuza
The Last Time I’ll Write About You is popular Filipino YA and romance writer Dawn Lanuza’s debut collection of poetry. Featuring beautiful, relatable poems about first love, this book is the perfect companion for anyone who has loved, lost, and emerged anew.
Get The Last Time I'll Write About You (Paperback) by Dawn Lanuza and other poetry books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreNorma Olizon-Chikiamco
**Winner of the Carlos Palance Memorial Award for Literature**
This colorfully illustrated multicultural children's book presents an entertaining story from the Philippines in both English and Tagalog.
A heart-warming story of a young Filipino girl who builds self-confidence after spending a day with her classmates, Pan de Sal Saves the Day: A Filipino Children's Story is an award-winning, inspiring tale for young children everywhere. It's the story of a young girl named Pan de Sal who lives in the Philippines and thinks she's the unluckiest girl in the whole world. Aside from not liking her own name and finding her appearance strange, she doesn't have all the fancy things her classmates have. She can't even muster the courage to try out for the Glee Club, even though she has a beautiful voice.
Get Pan de Sal Saves the Day (Trade Paperback) by Norma Olizon-Chikiamco and other early readers books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreAlvin Cailan
Filipino recipes from the the creator of the legendary Eggslut in LA, host of the hit online series The Burger Show, and the most prominent Filipino chef in the US.
Alvin Cailan has risen to become arguably the most high-profile chef in America's Filipino food movement. He took the food scene by storm when he opened the now-legendary Eggslut in Los Angeles, a foodie cult favorite specializing in affordable but sophisticated egg sandwiches. Alvin also hosts the popular The Burger Show on First We Feast's YouTube channel, with many episodes exceeding 1 million views and guests such as Seth Rogen and Padma Lakshmi. Alvin's story of success, however, is an unlikely one. He emerged from his youth spent as part of an immigrant family in East LA feeling like he wasn't Filipino enough to be Filipino and not American enough to be an American, thus amboy, the term for a Filipino raised in America. He had to first overcome cultural traditions and family expectations to find his own path to success, and this unique cookbook tells that story through his recipes.
Get Amboy: Recipes from the Filipino-American Dream (Hardcover) by Alvin Cailan and other cookery books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreErin Entrada Kelly
Winner of the Newbery Medal
Winner of the Newbery Medal! Acclaimed author Erin Entrada Kelly’s award-winning and bestselling novel for middle grade readers is a funny and poignant neighborhood story about unexpected friendships. Told from four intertwining points of view—two boys and two girls—the novel celebrates bravery, being different, and finding your inner bayani (hero). The Washington Post called it, “A charming, intriguingly plotted novel.” A New York Times bestseller!
Get Hello, Universe (Paperback) by Erin Entrada Kelly and other intermediate books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreGina Apostol
Histories and personalities collide in this literary tour-de-force about the Philippines’ present and America’s past by the PEN Open Book Award–winning author of Gun Dealers’ Daughter.
Two women, a Filipino translator and an American filmmaker, go on a road trip in Duterte’s Philippines, collaborating and clashing in the writing of a film script about a massacre during the Philippine-American War. Chiara is working on a film about an incident in Balangiga, Samar, in 1901, when Filipino revolutionaries attacked an American garrison, and in retaliation American soldiers created “a howling wilderness” of the surrounding countryside. Magsalin reads Chiara’s film script and writes her own version. Insurrecto contains within its dramatic action two rival scripts from the filmmaker and the translator—one about a white photographer, the other about a Filipino schoolteacher.
Get Insurrecto (Paperback) by Gina Apostol and other contemporary fiction books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreCarlos Bulosan
A 1946 Filipino American social classic about the United States in the 1930s from the perspective of a Filipino migrant laborer who endures racial violence and struggles with the paradox of the American dream, with a foreword by novelist Elaine Castillo.
Carlos's experiences with other Filipino migrant laborers, who endured intense racial abuse in the fields, orchards, towns, cities and canneries of California and the Pacific Northwest in the 1930s, reexamine the ideals of the American dream. Bulosan was one of the most important 20th century social critics with his deeply moving account of what it was like to be criminalized in the U.S. as a Filipino migrant drawn to the ideals of what America symbolized and committed to social justice for all marginalized groups.
Get America Is in the Heart, Penguin Classics (Paperback) by Carlos Bulosan and other classic books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreF. H. Batacan
This harrowing mystery, winner of the Philippine National Book Award, follows two Catholic priests on the hunt through Manila for a brutal serial killer
Payatas, a 50-acre dump northeast of Manila’s Quezon City, is home to thousands of people who live off of what they can scavenge there. It is one of the poorest neighborhoods in a city whose law enforcement is already stretched thin, devoid of forensic resources and rife with corruption. So when the eviscerated bodies of preteen boys begin to appear in the dump heaps, there is no one to seek justice on their behalf.
Get Smaller and Smaller Circles (Paperback) by F.H. Batacan and other crime and mystery books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
Learn MoreJia Tolentino
Jia Tolentino is a peerless voice of her generation, tackling the conflicts, contradictions, and sea changes that define us and our time. Now, in this dazzling collection of nine entirely original essays, written with a rare combination of give and sharpness, wit and fearlessness, she delves into the forces that warp our vision, demonstrating an unparalleled stylistic potency and critical dexterity.
Get Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion (Paperback) by Jia Tolentino and other essay books online and at Fully Booked bookstore branches in the Philippines.
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