I had a very long travel day this week, so I got most of my reading done while stuck on a plane holding a sleeping or nursing baby. Jet lag is way more brutal when there are two little (also jet-lagged) people in your house and no one seems to want to sleep at the same time, so I got very little done the rest of the week. Continue reading
Author: Kelly Dunagan
Last year’s books and next year’s plans
Well, it’s a new year, and although I usually make kind of half-assed, unspoken resolutions (except for the time I resolved to floss every day, which is also the only resolution I’ve ever kept for a full year), this year I’m going to lay out some specific goals for the blog—because I’m just sick of writing blog posts a year after reading the book (or, ok, two years at this point, which is just objectively ridiculous)—and I’m letting you know about it because if I manage to follow through, there will be a serious uptick in e-mail notifications and I don’t want anyone to be annoyed (at least not without being forewarned).
America Is in the Heart
America Is in the Heart, Carlos Bulosan, 1946
- Philippines, #11
- Paperback, received as a gift
- Read January 2018
- Rating: 2.5/5
- Recommended for: enthusiastic communists
Shadow and Solitude: A play in one stupid act
Solo Entre las Sombras (Shadow and Solitude), Claro M. Recto, 1917
- Philippines, #9
- Print-on-demand paperback, received as a gift
- Read November 2017
- Rating: 2/5
- Recommended for: False dichotomists
Philippine Short Stories 1925-1940
Philippine Short Stories 1925-1940, Leopoldo Y. Yabes, ed., 1975
- Philippines, #8
- Borrowed from SF public library
- Read December 2017
- Rating: 4/5
- Recommended for: completists
Noli Me Tangere: Yesterday’s news
Noli Me Tangere, José Rizal, 1887
- Philippines, #7
- paperback, received as a gift
- Read October 2017
- Rating: 4/5
- Recommended for: Harriet Beecher Stowe fan clubs
Cuentos Filipinos: Colonialism and condescension
Cuentos Filipinos, Jose Montero y Vidal, 1883, translated by Renan Prado
- Philippines, #5
- Borrowed from SF public library
- Read October 2017
- Rating: 2/5
- Recommended for: Miss Eleanor Lavish
Florante at Laura: Two guys crying in a forest, essentially
The History of Florante and Laura in the Kingdom of Albania: Adapted from some “historical pictures” or paintings of what happened in early times in the Greek Empire, and were set to rhyme by one delighting in Tagalog verse, Francisco Balagtas, 1861
- Philippines, #4
- Read online
- Read: August 2017
- Rating: 4/5
- Recommended for: imprecise Romanticists and their kick-ass girlfriends
Darangen: too epic for me
Darangen: in original Maranao verse with English translation, vol. I, Anon. (oral epic), transcribed by Hadji Lawa Cali et al., translated by Ma. Delia Coronel, 1986 (original composition sometime before the 14th century)
- Philippines, #1
- Borrowed from San Francisco Public Library (via interlibrary loan)
- Read October 2017
- Rating 3/5
- Recommended for: scholars, princesses in towers, and other people with lots of time on their hands
Potions and Paper Cranes: a bunch of bad things happen to a bunch of unlikeable people
Potions and Paper Cranes, Lan Fang, 2013
- Indonesia, #21
- Kindle edition, $10
- Read August 2017
- Rating: 2/5
- Recommended for: an additional perspective on race and gender in World War II-era Indonesia (but only if you’ve already read everything else)
