Beside my pillow are books by two of my favorite Filipino writers: the nosebleed- inducing F. Sionil Jose and the sarcastic Jessica Zafra. I am reading a compilation of Jose's short stories entitled "Puppy Love and Thirteen Short Stories." The stories are hardly romantic and never cheesy. Rather, they provide a raw and sometimes grim picture of love and the lives of the people who love. The first story, Puppy Love, is my favorite one so far.
