Coffeespoons

Last Nov. 20 and 24, I was at Colegio de San Agustin to accompany some Penguin Random House authors and illustrators to give author talks. This was in celebration of CSA’s Book Week. The invitation came through Ms. Cristina Larracas, CSA head librarian, whom I met a couple of years ago at the   PASLI (Philippine Association of School Librarians, Inc.)   in Baguio. Ms. Cris asked for speakers for Grades 4-6 and 7-10. I was fortunately able to invite… Ara Villena , illustrator of  GOBBLING GOBLINS  for Grade 4 Tori Tadiar , author and illustrator of  ILUSTRA: DAYBREAKER  for Grades 5&6 Mae Coyiuto , author of  CHLOE AND THE KAISHAO BOYS  for Grades 7-10 Ara and Tori gave their talks on Nov. 20, while Mae was slated for Nov. 24. And it was an audience of around 300 kids per session. It was amazing. Especially with the younger kids. Let me just say…I’ve never seen an audience more engaged than the kids were with the illustrators. And even the high...

Look! I have tabs! (Originally published on Wordpress, 11 Nov 2025 ) This was a joy of a book. Reminds me of the headiness of falling into N.K. Jemisin’s The Broken Earth trilogy . Or the wonder of discovering Eddings’ The Mallorean series (please don’t hate me. I really did love The Mallorean when I was a teen) or Terry Brooks’ Shannara series . You know: complex but truly well done worlds, amazing characters that you like, a magic system that makes sense within the world, great pacing, and astute social commentary. To give a little bit of context, Foundryside is set in a world where objects are scrived—a process where words or symbols are written on an object to make them do things that may or may not be opposed to their nature. And the purpose of scriving objects is, presumably, to make life easier for people because, say, you can scrive a carriage’s wooden wheels to go faster. Except that the instructions and know-how for scriving are owned by only four families who live...

Happy April 1! I have no jokes; instead, in the grand tradition of book content creators everywhere, here is a reading wrap-up. And because it's a holiday here in the Philippines, I actually took the time to compare wrap-ups of Goodreads , Fable , and Storygraph . And as you'll see here, I used Storygraph.  Honestly, I update Goodreads and Fable more. But Fable has the disadvantage of being difficult to add new books, and I like to include the Philippine-published titles I've read. I love you, Philippine publisher and writer friends, but I do let out a yell of frustration whenever I try to add Philippine title on Goodreads, and I can't find it. And yes, Goodreads is my first stop, because of longevity and because from experience, it's highly likely that if the title isn't on Goodreads, it's not going to be on Fable or Storygraph. But the inverse is not true. All to say, Goodreads still has the largest database. But it's not so much of a problem if the ti...

PRH US titles from Filipino creators Obviously this post is work-related, but I also love doing this, so let's call this a mix of business and pleasure. A few months ago, I posted a version of this on my IG, but lists and announcements in the industry are constantly updated, so I've updated this list as well. This is supposed to be a list of Filipino authors and illustrators (creators) who are being published this 2025 by Penguin Random House US and its distribution clients (publishers who do not belong to PRH US, but who are distributed by PRH both in the US and worldwide). But I snuck in two kids' titles that were pubbed in 2023, because, well, I just found out that the illustrator was from the Philippines. Does this happen often, that I realize belatedly that a creator is from the Philippines? Not often, because we honestly make it a point to find the Filipino creators on our lists. But it does happen occasionally because, well, we have a very big list. This list also h...