Currently Reading: F. Sionil Jose and Jessica Zafra

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.

Discovering Mathematics: The Art of Investigation

I admit it... I ♥ Math. It might not love me that much, but I absolutely love it. So when I heard about the Discovering Mathematics: The Art of Investigation (Dover Books on Mathematical & Word Recreations), I was intrigued and sieged with want.

Mikael de Lara Co: Don Carlos Palanca Awardee for Poetry

The horizon, my ancestors say,
is an eye. When it shuts
its lashes sift the sea for rafts

and turn fishermen and divers to stone,
their hands still clenched around pearls,
their blood turning crystalline and cold.

The gods were in love with the horizon.
They hung their jewels
on the night-sky and ebbed into the eye
while my people stared
at the orphaned trinkets.

The poem above is an excerpt from the the poem Archipelago by Mikael "Kael" de Lara Co. It is part of his award-winning collection "Hands for a Fistful of Sand." Other poems in the collection are Silence and Cryptic.

Hands for a Fistful of Sand won for Kael the First Prize for Poetry for this year's Don Carlos Palance Memorial Awards for Literature.

Kael was my classmate at AdMU. He was a BS Environmental Science major, but everybody knew his heart was in literature, in creatively tying up simple words and making them mean so much more.

This award is proof of his infinite genius. I believe he is going to be one of the poets of our generation who will define for us what Filipino poetry is in the second millennium.

Congratulations Kael!!!

Jose Garcia Villa's I CAN NO MORE HEAR LOVE'S

I can no more hear Love's
Voice. No more moves
The mouth of her. Birds
No more sing. Words
I speak return lonely.
Flowers I pick turn ghostly.
Fire that I burn glows
Pale. No more blows
The wind. Time tells
No more truth. Bells
Ring no more in me.
I am all alone singly.
Lonely rests my head.
—— O my God! I am dead.

RENE LIZADA's Papa's Table

Rene Lizada spent most of his adult life sharing knowledge and wisdom as an English teacher at a local high school. But after years of teaching, he is now living the corporate life. He also conducts workshops and seminars for budding writers and is an active member to Toastmasters.

Lizada writes a column entitled "Papa's Table" for the Sunstar Davao. In his column, he shares serious and funny life experiences, anecdotes, lessons and other musings. He often narrates stories about his wife and his kids. His eldest, Miguel Lizada, also has a column at the same newspaper, entitled "Kuya's Table."

The older Lizada's topics vary, but his entries are always hearfelt and well-written. His column should be read, not only for the sake of reading, but to learn, as well. Not only the lessons his explicitly shares but also his impeccable command of the English language. Although he rarely uses highfalutin words, he always manages to capture through his words, his experiences, reactions and emotions.

Papa's Table is usually published in the Sunstar Davao Newspaper and Website every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Jerusha C. Asprec: THE NUTTY PROFESSOR!

Nope, this is not about the movie. This Nutty Professor is Jerusha C. Asprec. Jerusha is a writer, a professor and blogger.

She prefers to define herself as a...

"Middle child, only girl * Young face, old soul * Outsider, looking in * Adventurer * Weirdo * Caffeine addict * An insomniac who can sleep like a log * Popcorn devourer * Knuckle cracker * Lyrics expert * Soup and pasta cook * Occasional klutz * Part-time professor, part-time grad student, FULL-TIME NUT CASE * Extreme thinker * Big-time dreamer * Crazy over childhood candies * Lover of the rain * Forever nostalgic * In the world, but not of the world * A certified radical for JESUS."

In her blog, The Nutty Professor!, she writes about her fulfilling, but frustrating and sometimes funny experiences as a professor.

Abo Sa Dila

Abo Sa Dila (Ash on the Tongue) is the title of Mikael Co's blog. Who, you ask, is Mikael Co? Mikael or Kael is a graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, a former writer for Heights (AdMU's Literary Publication). He is a wonderful creative writer in both Filipino and English. Kael is the only person I know who can get away with speaking and reciting in Tagalog in an English or Philosophy (in English) class. He is that brilliant.

His latest post, Senti-naryo is his 100th blog entry. In the entry, he writes his sentiments about a number of random things.

Abo sa Dila is basically a peek into Kael's mind: his musings, reflections, and other things that are sometimes deep and sometimes mundane. He is always witty and sharp. He also posts his poems and other products of his bursts of creativity. Most of his blog's entries are in Tagalog.

Conrado de Quiros

Conrado de Quiros is one of the opinion colmunists of the Philippine Daily Inquirer. His column entitled "There's the Rub" appears in the aforementioned daily from Monday to Thursday. His is witty, straight to the point appears to follow a strict code of ethics and morality. He is not a moralist but he does have a good sense of right and wrong which is apparent in his opinions. De Quiros does not simply admonish the appaling but also praises the whatever requires praise. He also has a readable style of writing which is witty but simple.

His columns also appear on INQ7.net and a reader also compiles it on the De Quiros Blog.

My Fair Maladies

I received a new book this New Year and so far I am loving it. The book is "My Fair Maladies" a compilation of "Funny Essays and Poems on Various Ailments and Afflictions". The book is edited by Cristina Pantoja-HIdalgo and published by Milflores Publishing Inc.

So far, I have read the first three essays and I am LOVE IT! The first essay is "Ock Ock" a witty essay on Obssessive Compulsiveness (OC) by Vicente Garcia Groyon. It is followed by an essay on Anal-retentivenes, "My Name is Susan, and I am Anal-Retentive" by Susan S. Lara. Then, a weird but mildly amusing take on knuckle cracking, "When I Get Cracking," by Jerusha Asprec follows.