#manansala

[ilaw-at-panitik]

In 2024, I managed to finish 14 Filipino-written books; among them, I can recommend seven:

Lucia Dreaming by Lucia Asul—This is a dream diary written and illustrated by Lucia Asul. It has a very cool art style, and dreams range from creepy to horrific to cosmic. The smell of this book is also unbeatable, IMO. It's the best-smelling book I've ever read.

Isabela by Kaisa Aquino—I have a review for this one here. I hesitate to call this a novel; it reads like a short story collection featuring women and men with similar names, all surrounding armed resistance and agrarian strife in Isabela to Manila. Very literary in the way it was written.

The Three-Cornered Sun by Linda-Ty Casper—Another one that I've written a review on. This historical fiction chronicles the Philippine revolution and features a family who found themselves on different sides of the war. Many beautiful and existential passages as the war went on. This book also features some of my favorite passages on rivers.

Love Without a Heart (May Pagsinta'y Walang Puso) by Inigo Ed Regalado tr by Soledad Reyes—A romp. I had such a good time with this book. It's a romance novel written in 1921, and the melodrama is so fun to read. Nothing hits like this anymore, I swear.

Tiempo Muerto by Caroline Hau—Is yet another one I've written more about. This is set on the fictional island of Banwa but tells the history of Negros, in an ancestral Bahay Na Bato House, where the protagonist's mother was lost in the aftermath of a typhoon that hit the island. Has a gothic, haunted house vibe in places but is ultimately about agrarian strife and the connection of resistance with our mountains. A really great read.

Tao sa Prowa: Mga Tala, Mga Taon ni Allan Popa—This is a series of vignettes featuring mundane things, then the author's reflections springing from them. This is a beautiful, well-curated collection. A bit pricey for a zine, but whatever. There are plenty of nuggets of gold in here.

Manansala by Enrique Villasis—Speaking of beautiful collections, this poetry collection features, converses with, meditates, reacts to and reimagines some of the works of the legendary cubist Vicente Manansala. As a nature writing fan, I especially loved the nature-adjacent works, but what I love most is the concept of this poetry collection. Auto-buy author sakin si En Villasis after reading this.

There you have it, my recommended Filipino-written works! Tell me if you've read books from this list and what you thought about them!

[flippythedoodle]

-introductory post-

hi yall, its me

made this thing so i can post stuff im proud of on more than one account, specifically ambigrams

REQUESTS APPRECIATED AND ENCOURAGED

... if you're gonna be respectful ab it. i won't do bigoted, harmful, mean shit. the words of an ambigram are united into one beautiful work of art, and as should we. i can do most any type of ambigram, symmetrical or asymmetrical, conventional or nonconventional, or maybe one you made up! that would be really cool.

----------but flippy, what are ambigrams????------

the definition is quite hard to pinpoint, as it either is too vague to properly distinguish it from something entirely different (like synonyms, heterograms, etc) but the main thing is:

an art form where one or more words are taken and combined with respect to each other such that both are visible from different perspectives/orientations

symmetrical means it uses a single word, while asymmetrical (or symbiotic if you prefer, although that makes them sound like theyre alive) means two or more words.

----------------------flippy, i can't read them!!!!!!----------------------

yeah, it takes a really really really good ambigram to be able to be read clearly both ways. if you can't, and i mean really cant read an ambigram, it's ok, its likely nobody else does either, and i or the ambigram creator is biased to the reading bc they already know it. this is why i made this account, to try to learn how to make mine better :D

-------------but flippyy, what do they look like?????????--------------

examples include:

correct readings in order of top to bottom, left to right:

astound, healing, houses, dumber, 👦/happy, hi!/hey, frick/fuck, hiding/plain sight, stay/leave here, inside out/outside

[balkanparamo]

Mother and Child: Vicente Manansala

[oldsardens]

Vicente Silva Manansala - Tiangge (Market Scene)

[bookaddict24-7]

(New Young Adult Releases Coming Out Today! (May 13th, 2025)

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Have I missed any new Young Adult releases? Have you added any of these books to your TBR? Let me know!

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New Releases:

Shampoo Unicorn by Sawyer Lovett

The Romance Rivalry by Susan Lee

Eliza, From Scratch by Sophia Lee

Out of Air by Rachel Reiss

The Art of Exile by Andrea Max

The Singular Life of Aria Patel by Samira Ahmed

Death in the Cards by Mia Manansala

When We Go Missing by April Henry

The Duke Steals Hearts & Other Body Parts by Elias Cold

When Love Gives You Lemons by Steven Salvatore

One of the Boys by Victoria Zeller

Home Has No Borders by Various

Fitting Indian by Jyoti Chand & Tara Anand (Illustrator)

Love, Canter, Action by Katie Gilbert

Get Real, Chloe Torres by Crystal Maldonado

Ruthless by Carolyn Lee Adams

The Education of Kia Greer by Alanna Bennett

Summer Girls by Jennifer Dugan

The Mutant & the Mule by A.A. Blair

You & Me On Repeat by Mary Shyne

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Happy reading!

[herochan]

Something Fantastic

Art by Gerald Manansala || IG

[lgbtqreads]

New Releases: May 13, 2025

This post is sponsored by Penguin Random House Canada in honor of The Vinyl Diaries: Sex, Deep Cuts, and My Soundtrack to Queer Joy by Pete Crighton. Big hearted, funny, thoughtful, and wildly entertaining, The Vinyl Diaries is a celebration of sex, music and the discovery of our true selves. Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | Indigo Continue reading New Releases: May 13, 2025

[thebaronmunchausen]

12,848,000php

[core-bands]

Of Mice & Men - Another You.

[dilebe06]

My Favorite Male Characters

[peterbparkers]

[almaczn]

fanart for the tita rosie’s kitchen mystery series by Mia P Manansala 📚🕵️‍♀️

[gothgleek]

Books I Read in 2024

Arsenic and Adobo

In typical Filipino fashion, my aunt expressed her love not through words of encouragement or affectionate embraces, but through food.

Food was how she communicated. Food was how she found her place in the world. When someone rejected her food, they were really rejecting her heart. It crushed her.

[balkanparamo]

La Pieta: Vicente Manansala

[inkcurlsandknives]

LAST CALL to sign up for tonight's free virtual event celebrating the launch of Mia Manansala's GUILT AND GINATAAN and all things corn festival fun! I've got a ear 🌽 and filipiniana #booklook and can't wait to chat with Mia about her new release!

Sign up loyaltybookstores.com/guiltandginataan