Five Filipino books more people should read

Top Row L-R: Smaller and Smaller Circles, It's a Mens World, The El Bimbo Variations
Bottom Row L-R: Texticles, Joaquinesquerie, sample of Pop Stories for Groovy Kids cover

This is a post I've been promising to write for a few months now. So, it's a day after my birthday--new year, new life and all that jazz-- and I'm finally getting off my bum to finish it. Let's call this the year that I do the things I've been planning to do for a long time.

Caveat # 1: This list is based only on the books I've read and really loved. Unfortunately, I haven't read as many Filipino books as I'd like.

Caveat # 2: I suppose some of you know I work with a publishing company. And so, though I do love many of the books we published, I've decided on not including them in this list for now. Would like to reserve them for another post (if I do finally get around to that). So, these books are not published by us.

Caveat # 3: Though I may know the writers of some of these books, I'd like to think I put their books here not because I know them, but because I really enjoy what they've written.

1. Smaller and Smaller Circles by F.H. Batacan - It's a forensic mystery involving a serial killer, though, as the book often says, there are no serial killers in the Philippines. I don't know how true that statement is, but this book is one of the few Filipino books I've read that is quite a page-turner. The detectives are two Jesuit priests, Father Brown style, from an unnamed but thoroughly recognizable (at least to us Filipinos) university. They're trying to solve a series of gruesome murders of children in one of the slum districts of Manila. I was happy to hear that the author, Ichi Batacan, is out to write a sequel to this book. In my opinion, it's about time.
2. It's a Mens World by Beverly Siy - The title may be a bit misleading, since it's in English, and the book is written mostly in Taglish (Tagalog-English). But Bebang Siy's essays are by turns moving and laugh-out-loud funny. Or both. (I'm serious about the laugh-out-loud part, as I had to try an contain my laughter since I was reading it beside my husband who was already asleep.) The magnificent thing about her essays: though they are about her coming of age and her family, Bebang's life mirrors experiences that many of us Filipinos go through and her insights are not platitudes. She seems to offer us her life with humor and joy, regardless of what she went through. And if you meet Bebang, you'll know that that's exactly how she is--always offering people joy.
3. The El Bimbo Variations by Adam David - I reviewed this a couple of years ago. It's an independent book written and published by a guy who, full disclosure, now works with me. This book isn't on this list because he works with me. Rather, he works with me because I had read this book and I think Adam is one of the most creative and smartest people I've met. And his intellect does not get in the way of his writing something delightful, so what you have is something funny, irreverent, smart, and riffing off something beloved in Philippine pop culture. And to think it's poetry! I often wish I had enough money to help him print enough copies and distribute these copies to every bookstore in the land so that more people read them. Because I think if teachers use the book as a way to show students poetry, be it English or Filipino, then we'll have more lovers of poetry in the Philippines. If you'd like to see the earliest version of the book, you can also download it from the Goodreads link.
4. Texticles by Adam David - Obviously, I really like Adam's work. This one is a fiction collection, though of a more experimental nature. The narratives are a series of exercises, written with different constraints that, again, would be FANTASTIC if used in a classroom showing students the really fun ways you can write or the amazing things you can do with words. Or, if you're not a teacher, then you can always marvel at how beautifully Adam writes these short pieces and vignettes. And fun. They are seriously fun. Oh, did I mention he designs his own covers, too? You'll see them above. They're the ones without any text on the front cover. 
5. Joaquinesquerie: Myth a la Mod by Nick Joaquin - This is actually a collection of what were originally children's stories entitled Pop Stories for Groovy Kids from a Filipino writing legend, Nick Joaquin. I first read the stories in this collection in my mid-20s. Hence, I did not read them with children's eyes and looked at them as one of those modern fairy tale collections, because that is what they are. When I found out later that they were originally issued as story books, I thought that the stories were doubly fantastic because they held an appeal for both kids and adults. The stories are intelligent, magical mash-ups of Philippine legends and Western fairy tales, yet the mash-ups remain faithful to the spirit of both the stories and their characters. You know how some mash-ups in Glee sound like they're murdering both songs? (Sorry, Glee fans.) Well, this is the opposite of that. Unfortunately, this copy is hard to find. And so are the original stories. They are all out of print. I sincerely hope the Joaquin estate is making plans of republishing these stories for a new generation of readers. These stories shouldn't lie dormant. And I think it really doesn't matter which publisher publishes them or whether the Joaquins independently publish them, just as long as the stories are out there again. Here I speak as a fan and as someone who is always wishing there are more great texts that will make readers out of non-readers. Please. Bring them back.

I hope those who read this do try at least one of these titles, if you haven't already. You may not like them as much as I do. Then again, you may. I'll settle for you giving them a chance. And for those books that aren't widely available, then I dearly hope their publishers read this and do something to make them accessible. It would be lovely to see them widely read.