National Book Lovers Day… But Make It Filipino! Here’s Our Top 5 Favorite Books
National Book Lovers Day… But Make It Filipino! Here’s Our Top 5 Favorite Books
Written by Dr. Therapinay,
Founder, Therapin*y & The.DrTherapinay
These are some of our FAVE books by Filipinos, about Filipinos, for everyone…
There are so many books out there! How do you choose which to read? Also, with many U.S. states banning books, why not do some active resisting and take back our power of knowledge. From the book stylings of Pia Cortez to the scholarly work of our very own advisory board member, Dr. Kevin Nadal, our community is rich with knowledge, book lovers, and authors! In no particular order, here are some of our picks to check out:
Homicide and Halo-Halo by Mia P. Manansala
Genre: Mystery/Thriller, Contemporary
Age Range: Adult
Release Date: February 8, 2022
Before you get into this book, did you read Arsenic and Adobo, the first book in the Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery series? If not, stop whatcha doing, and get on that! It’s fun, it’s enticing, it’s dark comedy, it’s utterly Filipino-friendly.
Synopsis: Things are heating up for Lila Macapagal. Not in her love life, which she insists on keeping nonexistent despite the attention of two very eligible bachelors. Or her professional life, since she can’t bring herself to open her new café after the unpleasantness that occurred a few months ago at her aunt’s Filipino restaurant, Tita Rosie’s Kitchen. No, things are heating up quite literally, since summer, her least favorite season, has just started.
To add to her feelings of sticky unease, Lila’s little town of Shady Palms has resurrected the Miss Teen Shady Palms Beauty Pageant, which she won many years ago—a fact that serves as a wedge between Lila and her cousin slash rival, Bernadette. But when the head judge of the pageant is murdered and Bernadette becomes the main suspect, the two must put aside their differences and solve the case—because it looks like one of them might be next.
AND ALSO, Blackmail and Bibinka the THIRD book in the Tita Rosie’s Kitchen Mystery series is coming out NEXT MONTH!! Get HYPED book lovas!!!
2. Of Myths and Men by Catherine Dellosa
Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction
Age Range: Young Adult/Adult
Release Date: February 15, 2022
Who doesn’t like a lil mystical-fantasy-urban-legend fun?! Think: Harry Potter meets Tresé but like superhero-saves-the-world-type-of-fun! This author knows how to fully immerse you in a world that’s wild with imagination, mixed with all the folklore that feels nostalgic to family stories that you may have heard growing up. Definitely a fun one to check out!!
Synopsis: Eighteen-year-old Ava has saved the world 152 times-ever since she got her hands on her first console. An avid gamer, she’s never left her small town except when immersed in virtual lands. But after a mysterious encounter with Brad-a silver-haired dude who may or may not be a vampire-she discovers that the mythological creatures she’s only ever seen in video games are actually totally real.Brad reveals that they’re alien refugees living among humans, hiding in plain sight and desperate for someplace to belong. Like him, Ava’s been searching for a sense of belonging all her life-bonus points because she finds the guy really, really cute. As Ava is suddenly thrust into a quest with a surfer wendigo, a friendly manananggal, a telepathic nine-tailed fox, a Sudoku-loving centaur, and a huggable Bigfoot, she embarks on an actual mission to fend off an incoming alien invasion-only there won’t be any save points to help her fight the impending doom that threatens to destroy the earth. In the midst of dodging human hunters and her growing feelings for Brad, Ava soon learns that reality isn’t quite what it seems, and that this time, she just might need to save the world for real.
3. Tablay: The Graphic Novel by Kat Olan and Paul Medalla
Genre: Science Fiction
Age Range: Adult
Release Date: forthcoming September 2022
I love a good graphic novel!! Give me manga, give me Persepolis, give me Maus, Give Me Tablay! This is on my reading book list, so it’s something to look out for and put on your book-queue, or better yet, put it on your “fun things to do for Filipino American History Month” type of list!!
Synpopsis: New Intramuros: a hyper-technological smart city surrounded by heavily armored walls. Beyond it, vast mountains and jungles teeming with hostile machine life called aswangs. For over a century, the Philippine Mech Force has been fighting the aswangs with mechs of their own—and talented pilots to fly them. Anya grew up watching her father, the famed General Armin Valerio, lead the charge during Operation Tablay—an all-out bombing campaign aimed to annihilate the aswangs once and for all. Everything changed when the operation failed, leaving her father an incapacitated man. Fourteen years later, Anya Valerio enters the Philippine Mech Force as a pilot with hopes of restoring her father’s honor. She quickly becomes a rising star. However, when she finds out a dark secret about the aswangs, her view of the war changes. Now it’s up to Anya and her partner—the reserved but brilliant engineer, Chino Jose—to stop the fight before the consequences are irreversible.
4. Books by Randy Ribay
Genre: Science Fiction
Age Range: Young Adult-Adult
Release Date: Audible out June 2022
So, we just love a good Randy Ribay book here at Therapin*y! But also, it’s a choose-your-own-adventure!! Commence excited-squealing…. We know this author from his heavy-hetter Patron Saint of Nothing, which is part of the #DisruptTexts which provides book resources and critical pedagogy in a helpful PDF to help you bring equity to your classroom. He also created a great recommendation list for Filipinx children’s books I’ve put on my list for my fam too. His earlier work includes An Infinite Number of Parallel Universes, which pulls on all our love for a good friendship-story.
Most recently, he’s dropped another one for us bibliophiles with Project Kawayan!
Synopsis: You wake up floating. Not in the air, but horizontally in a coffin-sized chamber filled with blue gelatinous fluid. You do not remember what this is. You do not remember why you are here. You do not remember who you are. This is how it begins: Select-Your-Destiny™, a storytelling experience that places the listener directly in the action by giving them the power to choose what happens. The narrator describes the circumstances, and once a Destiny Node is reached, the listener chooses what happens next. The narrator narrates, the listener chooses. That is how it has always worked—until now. In this story, the listener chooses to team up with the narrator, collaborating on what shape the story will take. A story of an unnamed teen who must piece together what’s going on after waking from suspended animation in a vacant bunker deep underground without memory. With each twist and turn, each Destiny Node, the listener and narrator begin to recover what was lost. What comes to light will transform them both.
5. Books for ya’ll/us academic-loving-books-lover types
Fun reality: Being the human I am, I’ve had little time for the things I love - one of which is the topic at hand, reading - and in particular, reading for fun. Much of my book-headspace has been in the academic and theoretical book land. So, a quick shoutout to the Filipino books that changed the game and put in the pages in this arena:
1. Leny Mendoza Strobel’s books on decolonization and babaylan studies
2. Dr. E.J. David’s books on oppression and colonial mentality
2. Dr. Kevin Nadal’s dozens of books - there’s so many instrumental ones to choose from, so enjoy!
So, the real question now is… who wants to start a Therapin *y book club with us?! Holllllllllaa!!!!