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Book Reviews

Abaca Frontier: The Socioeconomic and Cultural Transformation of Davao, 1898–1941 by Patricia Irene Dacudao

A Frontier Rises South of the Border (Review Author: Karl M. Gaspar CSSR)

 

Ang Mga Iniiwan ng Tubig ni Jason Tabiñas

Pag-ani ng Hiwaga sa Poot at Pait ng Sariling Lupa (Review Author: Roy Rene S. Cagalingan)

 

A Natural History of Empire by Dominic Sy

Book Review by Christoffer Mitch C. Cerda

 

A Pig Was Once Killed In Our Garage by Martin Villanueva

Martin Villanueva’s ‘A Pig Was Once Killed In Our Garage’ is an elegiac catalogue that interrogates the essay (Review Author: Catherine Orda)

 

Armor by John Bengan

Holiday Reads (Review Author: Jenny Ortuoste)

Through a Glass, Darkly (Review Author: Karl M. Gaspar CSSR)

 

Ascending the Fourth Mountain: A Personal Account of the Marcos Years by Maria Virginia Yap Morales

‘Ascending the Fourth Mountain’: a must-read book written by a Pinay about Filipino women revolutionaries (Review Author: Karl M. Gaspar CSSR)

The Party's Over (Review Author: Patricio N. Abinales)

 

Asian Place, Filipino Nation by Nicole CuUnjieng Aboitiz

Book Review by Luis Zuriel P. Domingo

 

Between Celebration and Critique: Snapshots from 500 Years of Philippine Christianity by Jose Mario Francisco, SJ

Ateneo Press’ new titles on Philippine heritage (Review Author: Jenny Ortuoste)

 

Biyaheng Pinoy: A Mindanao Travelogue by Edilberto N. Alegre

To travel and to learn (Review Author: Michelle Ann P. Soliman)

The Discursivities in Edilberto Alegre’s Biyaheng Pinoy: A Mindanao Travelogue (Commentary Author: Jay Jomar F. Quintos)

 

Broken Islands by Criselda Yabes

‘Tiempo Muerto,’ ‘Broken Islands’ highlight women’s lives (Review Author: Jenny Ortuoste)

 

Campaigns of Knowledge: U.S. Pedagogies of Colonialism and Occupation in the Philippines and Japan by Malini Johar Schueller

Malini Johar Schueller’s Campaigns of Knowledge: U.S. Pedagogies of Colonialism and Occupation in the Philippines and Japan (Review Author: Stewart A. Young)

 

Children of the Postcolony: Filipino Intellectuals and Decolonization, 1946-1972 by Charlie Samuya Veric

Charlie Samuya Veric’s Children of the Postcolony: Filipino Intellectuals and Decolonization, 1946–1972 (Review Author: Fr. Antonio B. de Castro, SJ)

 

City Stories by Angelo R. Lacuesta

Out of the Blue (Review Author: Noelle Q. de Jesus)

 

Clothing the Colony: Nineteenth-Century Philippine Sartorial Culture, 1820-1896 by Stephanie Coo

IQAS book review (Review Author: Sarah Steinbock-Pratt )

In ‘Clothing the Colony,’ Stephanie Coo weaves the fabric of history in the sartorial Filipino (Review Author: Addie Pobre)

 

College Boy: Poems by Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta

On the brink of the indelicate (Review Author: Alfred A. Yuson)

The poetry of ‘womaning’ up (Review Author: Alma Anonas-Carpio)

Mookie Katigbak-Lacuesta on her new book: ‘This comes from a place of real conviction’ (Interview by ANC)

 

Counterrevolution by Walden Bello

Counterrevolution: The Global Rise of the Far Right, written by Walden Bello (Review Author: Teresa S. Encarnacion Tadem)

 

Endangered Splendor: Manila’s Architectural Heritage 1571-1960 (Volume 1): The Center by Fernando Zialcita and Erik Akpedonu

Humanizing Manila (Review Author: Vanessa P. Bicomong)

Manila's architectural heritage (Review Author: Jorge Mojarro)

Splendors of old Manila (Review Author: Edgar Allan M. Sembrano)

Ateneo Press’ new titles on Philippine heritage (Review Author: Jenny Ortuoste)

Book Review by Geoffrey Rhoel C. Cruz

 

Hindi Nangyari Dahil Wala sa Social Media na inedit nila Rolando B. Tolentino, Vladimeir B. Gonzales, at Laurence Marvin S. Castillo

Question Everything | Ligalig at social media (Review Author: Mong Palatino)

 

False Nostalgia: The Marcos "Golden Age" Myths and How to Debunk Them by JC Punongbayan

‘False Nostalgia’ review: I hate that we need this book (Review Author: Carljoe Javier)

 

Kalandrakas: Stories and Storytellers of/on Regions in Mindanao, 1890–1990: A Preliminary and Continuing Survey and Literary Mapping edited by Ricardo M. de Ungria

Kalandrakas to the Maximum! (Review Author: Karl M. Gaspar, CSSR)

Kalandrakas 1890 to 1990: Sundry and Danger (Review Author: Jay Jomar F. Quintos)

 

Keeping Memories: Cinema and Archiving in the Asia-Pacific edited by Nick de Ocampo

Visions from the archives (Review Author: Edgar Allan M. Sembrano)

 

Kites in the Night by Blaise Campo Gacoscos

Holiday Reads (Review Author: Jenny Ortuoste)

Book Review by Alexandra Nae Benecio

Book Review by Caroline Howard

Discovering Sexuality in Blaise Campo Gacoscos' Kites in the Night (Review Author: Rita T. Dela Cruz)

 

Labor Pioneers: Economy, Labor, and Migration in Filipino-Danish Relations, 1950-2015 by Nina Trige Andersen

Book Review on Labor: Studies in Working-Class History (Review Author: Labor and Working-Class History Association)

 

Mabuting Loob Atsuko Nambu: A Filipino Memory by Amadio Arboleda 

The Japanese charmer who helped Filipinos move on from the war (Review Author: Howie Severino)

 

Making Sense of the City: Public Spaces in the Philippines edited by Remmon E. Barbaza

Review by Carl Jayson Hernandez

 

Moro Warrior: A Philippine Chieftain, an American Schoolmaster, and the Untold Story of the Most Remarkable Resistance Fighters of the Pacific War by Thomas McKenna

The Moro South On Fire (Review Author: Criselda Yabes)

 

Motherless Tongues: The Insurgency of Language Amid Wars of Translation by Vicente Rafael

Rebel Language (Review Author: Akshya Saxena)

 

Patronage Democracy in the Philippines: Clans, Clients, and Competition in Local Elections edited by Julio C. Teehankee and Cleo Anne A. Calimbahin

A look at the country’s patronage politics (Review Author: Elfren S. Cruz)

Timely tome on ‘patronage democracy’ is an eye-opener (Review Author: Jenny Ortuoste)

 

Philippine Politics and the Marcos Technocrats by Teresa S. Encarnacion Tadem

Book Review by Jan Robert R. Go

 

Repentance and Rebirth at the End of Life as We Know It by Agustin Martin Rodriguez

Book Review by Oscar D. Sison Jr.

 

Rock Solid: How the Philippines Won Its Maritime Case Against China by Marites Vitug 

Shifting Sands in the South China Sea (Review Author: John Nilsson-Wright, Taehwan Kim, John Delury, Nayan Chanda)

 

Sensing Manila by Gary Devilles

Book Review by Louie Benedict R. Ignacio

 

Some Are Smarter Than Others: The History of Marcos’ Crony Capitalism by Ricardo Manapat

Social Climbers (Review Author: Joseph Garcia)

Sui Generis: Rule of Law Matters (Review Author: Marites Vitug)

What we mean when we say ‘Never Again’ (Review Author: Clem Malubay)

 

Song of the Mango and Other New Myths by Vida Cruz-Borja

Holiday Reads (Review Author: Jenny Ortuoste)

I read a short story collection about Pinoy lore and myths! (Review Author: Pam Quinones)

A 'Song' of many pleasures (Review Author: Vanessa P. Bicomong)

Book Review by Matt Womble

 

Tiempo Muerto by Caroline S. Hau

‘Tiempo Muerto,’ ‘Broken Islands’ highlight women’s lives (Review Author: Jenny Ortuoste)

 

The Age of Umbrage by Jessica Zafra

Jessica Zafra pens a wry coming-of-age tale (Review Author: Scott Garceau)

Popular Filipino author/columnist & podcaster, Jessica Zafra's first novel, The Age Of Umbrage (Review Author: Noelle Q. de Jesus)

Jessica Zafra's First Novel Is For Misfits and Outcasts (Review Author: Paul John Cana)

Zafra’s auspicious debut as novelist (Review Author: Elizabeth Lolarga)

Short and snarky (Review Author: Danton Remoto)

Portrait of the Filipino woman as a smart outsider (Review Author: Danton Remoto)

 

The Betrayed by Reine Arcache Melvin

Ménage à trois of deceit (Interviewer: Luis H. Francia)

 

The Collaborators by Katrina Tuvera

Novels that explore difficult, disturbing societal themes (Review Author: Jenny Ortuoste)

A heritage of implicit complicity (Review Author: Alfred A. Yuson)

 

The Collected Stories of Jessica Zafra by Jessica Zafra

Out of the Blue (Review Author: Noelle Q. de Jesus)

 

The Philippines Is Not A Small Country by Gideon Lasco

Book ponders nationhood (Review Author: Ruel S. De Vera)

Book Review by Jerome V. Cleofas

A Sense of History and National Identity 

 

The Sovereign Trickster: Death and Laughter in the Age of Duterte by Vicente L. Rafael

No Beast Larger than All of Us: Theorizing Strongman Rule in the Philippine Postcolony (Review Author: Oscar Tantoco Serquiña Jr.)

Comparative Authoritarianism: On Vicente L. Rafael’s “The Sovereign Trickster” and Erin Murphy’s “Burmese Haze” (Review Author: Rosalie Metro)

Review by Francisco Jayme Paolo A. Guiang

 

The Sulu Zone, 1768-1898: The Dynamics of External Trade, Slavery, and Ethnicity in the Transformation of a Southeast Asian Maritime State by James Warren

BISDAK: The Timeless Insights of James Warren (Review Author: Patricio N. Abinales)

 

The Water Defenders: How Ordinary People Saved A Country from Corporate Greed by Robin Broad and John Cavanagh

Review by Efenita M. Taqueban

 

Virgin (muli) Po Ako (mga dulang may isang yugto) ni Reuel Molina Aguila 

Bakit virgin? A review of ‘Virgin Muli Po Ako’ (Review Author: Daniel Lorenzo Mariano)

 

What Kapitan Tiago Served and Padre Damaso Ate by Jose Victor Z. Torres

Book Review by Luis Zuriel P. Domingo

 

Yñiga by Glenn Diaz

Holiday Reads (Review Author: Jenny Ortuoste)