Gifts for the holidays: 2019 Fil-Can books
Gifts for the holidays: 2019 Fil-Can books
By Ysh Cabana
The Philippine Reporter
Are you looking for the perfect presents for this holiday season? The Philippine Reporter got you covered. We’ve compiled a list for the variety of recently released Filipino-Canadian literature for everyone.
I Promise, by Catherine Hernandez with illustrations by Syrus Marcus Ware (Arsenal Pulp Press; 32 pages) is a picture book for children ages 3 to 8. It takes into account the intimate moments of parenting in a queer family starting with a promise to love a child—from building pillow forts and checking under the bed for monsters to kissing boo-boos and cuddling after a long day. It also affirms that families come in many shapes, sizes, and colours. ★★★★☆
Double Melancholy, by C.E. Gatchalian ((Arsenal Pulp Press; 224 pages) is fierce in displaying his singular prose style. As a self-described multi-hyphenate and well-known playwright, he exposes himself vulnerable to readers in the ‘Art, Beauty, and the Making of a Brown Queer Man.’ He writes his account how much of the art he consumes is rooted in class oppression, sexism, transphobia, and racism of a culture that has little room for people like him. ★★★☆☆
Poet-teacher Lani Monreal’s first published book of poetry FANBOYS (Finishing Line Press; 36 pages) is a record of verses and rhythm played “in betwewen grading papers.” Initially titled “Faculty Development,” Monreal inquires about things that many writers try to grapple with on creativity and that many readers try to understand about language. Save for its pop culture reference, it is a reminder of learning grammar where FANBOYS is an acronym of “for,” “and,” “nor,” “but,” “or, “yet,” and “so.” ★★★★☆
Winnipeg-born author Shirley Camia’s fourth collection Mercy (Turnstone Press; 73 pages) may be as personal an homage to her late mother but also chronicles the magnitude of loss in its general sense. She invites readers to keep vigil while she journeys through seasons of bereavement, from the wake to the graveside, and into a year of processing, searching, and healing. With tenderness and clarity, Camia captures into words rigorous threads of emotions that are sometimes unutterable. ★★★★☆
Rose of Calapan and Her Pearls in the Box, by Lucy Lombos (Library and Archives Canada; 356 pages) is a coming-of-age story of a woman named Amanda Rose, who finds her place in the world as she struggles and overcomes trials. ★★★☆☆
Florchita Bautista dedicates her book Interviews across time and space to people who are searching for meaning in their lives. It is something of a time travel story in which she engages in conversation figures of distant past as old as Biblical times in search of meaning and purpose in life. Here, the social activist and former nun fictionalizes “interviews” Joseph, Judith, Amos, Micah and Paul and contextualizes their stories in contemporary period. ★★★★☆
Gemma Dalayoan pens “A gemma is a bud of a flower that hasn’t blossomed yet. Its blossoming is awaited with anticipation by nature lovers for them to savour gemma’s fragrance and beauty.” In her self-titled collection of poems gemma (The Bud) (McNally Robinson; 105 pages), Dalayoan paints a portrait of her lifetime of journal entries growing up in the Philippines and becoming a migrant Filipino Canadian. ★★★☆☆
Princess Bunyi, Queen Street, by Emmanuelle Chateauneuf (Chapterhouse Publishing; 96 pages) is a charming graphic novel about the life of an immigrant single mom to an imaginative daughter. It’s a semi-autobiographical slice of life tale from Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.-based Chateauneuf who was raised on conservative Filipino Catholic notions of romance and sex. ★★★★☆
Dark Magic, by Rachel Evangeline Chiong with Canadian cartoonist Sven Goslinski (Sven Comics; 36 pages) will leave anyone spellbound with beautiful pen-and-ink imagery in striking contrast to the brilliant wordsmithery of Chiong. ★★★★☆
Named one of the top ten books of the year by the New York Public Libary, Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Canadian-born Filipino-Texan Jia Tolentino (Random House; 320 pages) articulates boldly in several essays on topics she has known herself recounting her experience growing up in an evangelical megachurch, returning to after an absence to her alma mater, revisiting feminism and even resisting the rituals of marriage. Is there any topic Jia Tolentino can’t tackle? She doesn’t offer prescriptions; but provides a smart map in a world of scam. ★★★★★
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