By Pennie Azarcon-dela Cruz, Executive Editor
Sunday Inquirer Magazine

IT’S that time of year again when I feel I’ve died and gone to heaven. Once a year just before Holy Week, books, books and more books drop like manna from the sky, giving us staff an excuse to lounge around feeling like Tom Sawyer chewing on a blade of grass while studying the clouds. Except we’re popping our eyeballs reading the latest book releases so we can write reviews that, hopefully, will guide readers into picking the right titles to pack with their swimwear and goggles for the Lenten break. This is one time when we really get to say–with a dolorous sigh and buckets of crocodile tears, “Tough job, but someone’s got to do it!” Yeeaah, Momma!

Here are some quotes from five titles I’ve chosen for the diverse audience they address: “The Independence of Mary Bennett” for the hopeless (or rather, the hopeful) romantic, “The Mayor of Castro Street” for gays, gay advocates, social scientists and history buffs; “the Many Ways of Being Muslim” for the literati, Muslims, and anybody who wants a good read, “Cory: An Intimate Portrait,” not just for Coryistas but also those seeking another definition of leadership beyond tantrums at Malacanang, and “The Philippines Through European Lens,” for anthropologists, historians, senior folk and just about anybody who finds interesting the grainy but striking black and white photographs of Filipinos and the Philippines during colonial times. Ideal for photo buffs (and which Pinoy isn’t?), this last is the perfect foil for the flawless (thanks to photoshop) digital shots of the here and now.

1. “Cory” (An Intimate Portrait) by Margie Penson-Juico (editor)
I vividly remember the coup attempts of August 1987.

I was out supervising the placement of armor around the palace when bursts of gunfire rang out. I rushed to the president’s official residence in Arlegui St. across from Malacañang, and found the president and her family upstairs. I asked them to go downstairs and turn off all lights, and instructed my guards to stand mattresses against the windows.

I then made a headcount and found one missing. I went back upstairs and noticed light coming through the open bathroom door. It was the president combing her hair.

“Ma’am,” I begged, “Please go to the ground floor, it’s not safe here,” to which she calmly replied that she needed to look presidentially presentable when she met the media.

Here was the woman reported by a newspaper columnist to have hidden under the bed at the height of the coup attempts. In fact, she was the calmest soul around.” (Volts Gazmin, “The Calmest Soul Around,” p. 59)

2. “The Independence of Miss Mary Bennet” by Colleen McCullough
He began to plot. First of all, how to meet his Mary not only again, but many times? Secondly, how to impress her with his undeniable assets? Thirdly, how to make her fall in love with him? In love at last, he found to his horror that things like social imbecility did not matter. Once he had snared her, he would have to paint Mrs. Angus Sinclair as an eccentric. That is the best quality of the English, he thought: they have an affinity for eccentrics. (p. 62)

3. “The Mayor of Castro Street” (The Life and Times of Harvey Milk) by Randy Shilts
Gays who escaped blackmailers had to run the gauntlet with “Lilly Law,” as police were known among gays in the 1930s. Police knew that one Market Street theater was a popular pit stop for wandering gay men, so authorities routinely assigned seats there to the most comely police cadets. Once a gay man sidled to the next seat, the cadets would wriggle their legs suggestively. After the preliminaries of fellatio, the plainclothesman would suggest that the pair meet outside for more fun. In the darkness of the theater, the gay cruiser would not know the policeman had painted mercurochrome on his penis. The artistry, however, was obvious to the vice squanders who stood in the lobby, arresting any man who emerged with telltale red lips. (p. 49)

4. “The Many Ways of Being Muslim”(Fiction by Muslim Filipinos). Edited by Coeli Barry
After the prayer, Sayid goes out to the mosque, to pray some more. I began filming. Connie’s gown is on her bed, kept in place by the heavy crown. The “panumping” is mine. I have to lend it to her because hers wouldn’t fit on her head for some strange reason. Do you want me to wake your mother? I ask. No, thanks. She takes the prayer garb off. She’s just wearing panties, black ones. Her skin is alabaster-smooth, small belly, nipples like soft erasers that can make Sayid forget me. I become aware of the folds of skin on my tummy, my wrinkles, crow’s feet, and a dead toenail on my left foot. (“Ayesha’s Pretty Hate Machine” by Pearlsha Abubakar, p.168)

5. “The Philippines Through European Lenses” (Late 19th Century Photographs from the Meerkamp van Embden Collection) by Otto van Den Muijzenberg
Along entrance trails, images were placed to protect the inhabitants. I was able to secure two wooden anito figures. Both are carved from the trunks of young trees about a meter high; one of them carries a bow and four bamboo arrows…the mouth and eyes have been indicated by stones, and the back is decorated with long reed grass. On their heads and at their feet, the Kiangans place offerings like rice, corn, tobacco or betel nut, and a coconut shell containing basi wine. I wanted to take these two figures along, but I had to refrain from it as my porters were so frightened they would have dropped my baggage and run away. (p. 185)

For brief but concise reviews of 64 new titles, check out the Summer Reading Issue of the Sunday Inquirer Magazine on March 29. Free with your copy of the Philippine Daily Inquirer!