It’s the 15th of January 2025. We’re only two weeks into the new year and yet, it feels like it has been a long time. Since January 2, there has been only 10 work days and two (2) weekends! But we’re back to the same routine, and the newness of 2025, it seems, is getting…
Category: Book Talk
Meandering Thoughts
I feel that one of the saddening moments of life is when a person suddenly loses interest and enthusiasm in things that previously made one happy or fulfilled. Like Veronika in Paulo Coelho’s literary world or in a lesser extent, John in “Brave New World” by Alduous Huxley, or Equality 7-2521 in “Anthem” (I like…
Usaping Wika
Ngayong Agosto ay Buwan ng Wikang Pambansa. Iyan ang dahilan kung bakit nagkaroon ako ng inspirasyon na magsulat tungkol sa wika. Ano ang wika? Ito ang midyum para maipahayag ang ating ideya, opinyon at saloobin. Mayaman ba ang bansang Pilipinas sa wika? Oo, sapagka’t mayroon tayong halos dalawang daan na wika sa ating bansa. Ayun…
Banana Heart Summer
After a few months of reading a chapter or two during my ‘pockets of freetime,’ upon waking up, before sleeping or during lunch time at work, and during brief stops in my recent Ilocos trip, I finally finished reading last weekend the novel “Banana Heart Summer.” My heart reeled with emotions – joy, sadness, grief,…
Pansit/Pancit
Maraming klase ng pansit sa Pilipinas. Halos sa bawat lugar, may kinasanayan na pamamaraan sa pagluto ng pansit, sa klase ng noodles at sa mga sahog. Sa aming bahay, maging dito sa Manila o noong nasa probinsya pa kami, karaniwan na nagluluto ng pansit si Mama kapag may kaarawan, piyesta, Pasko o anupamang selebrasyon. Pansit…
Philippines: Un Pays au Pluriel (A Country of a Thousand Faces), 1987
When I first found the French-English book Philippines: Un Pays au Pluriel (1987) from the bottom shelf of the Embassy library, it seemed like just any other book about the Philippines with pictures of nature, tribes wearing their traditional garments, and Filipinos wearing beautiful smiles. But when I read the description of the author Jean…
When Breath Becomes Air (Paul Kalanithi, 2016)
When I saw the pale blue book with the image of a surgeon’s back as the cover, on one of the shelves in Morawa Bookstore in Vienna, during my visit last weekend, I didn’t pay it special attention. Even after I briefly read the title and the synopsis at the back cover, it didn’t impress…
Managing Oneself (Peter F. Drucker, 2008)
Six months after I arrived in Paris in 2018 for my foreign assignment, I ordered a book in Amazon about the history of France. Then, I saw that one of the recommended books is a white and orange booklet with the helpful title “Managing Oneself.” I thought, “Why not? It will possibly help me adjust…
Beyond Routes 