The most recommended books about the Philippines

This is an outstanding collective study of the epistemological, sociopolitical, religious, and cultural transitions that have taken place in colonial Latin America as represented in its foundational cultural discourses. The "Introduction" explains the use of "transition" as a conceptual framework within a genealogy associated with transculturation, syncretism, hybridity, contact zones, and in-betweenness.

With the advent of colonialism, Quispe-Agnoli and Brian point out, the local indigenous population resisted but also appropriated new ways of documenting their reality without necessarily losing their traditional forms, as is often believed.

This interdisciplinary book is divided into six parts, focusing respectively on key cultural phenomena during colonial times: land, space, and territory; the body; belief systems; literacies; languages; and identities.

The contributors, all of them experts in their own subfields, cover a vast geographical space, from the Americas to the Philippines and China, and analyse cultural production and discourses published both in Europe and the… show more.

The Hero of Bataan is an excellent book that tells the story not of General Douglas MacArthur, but General Jonathan Wainwright, the real hero of Bataan and Corregidor. It covers the battle of the Philippines at the outset of the U.S. involvement in World War II, the fall of the Philippines, and Wainwright’s experiences as a Japanese-held POW for the rest of the war. It describes that even as the senior U.S. POW in Japanese hands, Wainwright was treated as poorly as any other POW, as were other Allied general officers listed in the book. I find this an excellent, interesting, must-read to understand what really occurred in the Philippines during the early stages of the war and to those who survived the battles.

Alvar’s stories of men and women of the Philippine diaspora take place all over the globe, shedding insight on the export of labor.

As they separate from the safety and familiarity of family, the characters’ longing and aspirations are universal. This is an important book that helps to illuminate a fascinating and often painful experience of leaving, losing, and searching for home.

Twelve-year-old Freddie Ruiz believes he is the victim of a multi-generational family curse: whenever the pressure’s on, he’s likely to stumble, fall, or embarrass himself.

When he finds an old amulet in the garage, he unwittingly releases the ghost of his great-granduncle, and now the curse gets worse: Freddie has just seven days to reverse it if he wants to survive!

A winner of the Sid Fleischman Humor Award, this book also makes powerful references to Filipino history that help ground the fantasy events in the real world. It’s full of nice moments—I giggled when I saw that Chapter 13 was crossed out (“too unlucky!”) and replaced with Chapter 14—and there’s great warmth in the scenes between Freddie and his various family members.

Finn O’Donnell is a hero, an Afghanistan veteran, and an Army sniper who buys a ranch in Texas and plans to settle down for a peaceful life. 

That changes when his former spotter, Callie Brewster, arrives seeking a place to stay, seeking safety for herself and her young nephew.

Both suffer some PTSD, which I’ve written about. It’s a subject very meaningful to me because one of my grandfathers, a Missouri farm boy, served in the Pacific during World War II, primarily in the Philippines, and came home with PTSD, although it was not yet called such. His experiences affected the rest of his life, and so reading another work with characters working through the same caught my heart.

I rejoiced for the characters, wept with them, and became very involved in their story. I wished it could continue and not end.

I thought I knew a thing or two about the history of World War II. Somehow, the battle for New Guinea escaped me, despite the role played by the American General, Douglas MacArthur. Significant as a turning point in the war and enabling MacArthur's return to the Philippines, the fight in New Guinea deserves mention in the same breath as the stepping-stone battles of the Pacific islands. The fighting was brutal and the conditions for both Japanese and Allied troops were horrid—trails ascending rugged mountains, supply-chain difficulties, diseases that diminished the abilities of troops to fight. I have been to New Guinea twice. Duffy captured the ruggedness of the land and his telling of the stories made me feel the place, the people, and their challenges.

Sugar and Spite has magic, strong friendships, and imperfect, yet relatable characters—all the things I enjoy in a novel. Not only did I enjoy learning about the many facets of the Filipino culture; I appreciated the layered messaging. Bullying is a difficult topic to tackle, and this novel addresses it in a way that caused me to think about the challenging people and difficult relationships in my life. This is such a sweet story dealing with issues I know readers can identify with—loss, jealousy, insecurities, and ultimately acceptance.

Wow. A part of WW2 that I knew absolutely nothing about. I’ve read so much that takes place in Europe but nothing at all in the Pacific, so it opened up a whole new setting for me.

Fascinating, sad, heroic. Wonderful, realistic characters. An important and beautiful book that takes place in the Philippines.

The Aswang mythology of the Philippines is fascinating and storied, a menagerie of creatures as horrific as any from Transylvania. This novel by a Filipina-Canadian author about a young man returning to his roots to find more werewolfery than he bargained for delves into its fascinating lore with cultural authenticity.

This young adult book grabs the reader from the first page.

Inna Lin is a girl living in a small village in the Philippines with her very big family. They are very impoverished and the struggle for them to put food on the table is palpable, but their joy and caring for each other is significant. When Inna receives a special bracelet on her 12th birthday everything changes for her.

She discovers she has some new powers and uses them to help her family thrive, unfortunately this attracts unwanted attention and Inna finds herself in trouble. The characters in this book are well-written and feel very real. The plot moves at an excellent pace, especially for the target age. This book made me cry.