Foot and Fire

For Matrimonial Purposes Kavita Daswani Penguin, 2003, 277 pages Fiction This novel was loaned to me by a good friend who shares my interest with anything Eastern. I read this long before I finished the first one I borrowed from her, We want to live here, an exchange of letters between Israeli and Palestinian teenage girls. But I'm glad that I decided to pick it up. I was inspired to pick it up maybe after reading proposals and marriges the Afgani way in a memoir, The Bookseller of Kabul, where the men gives dowry to women's family. In this novel, I learned that the family of the Indian woman spends lavishly for the wedding and gives dowry to the groom. But the same thing as the Afghans, the family agrees and makes proposals and conducts the marriage ceremony within a short period. Afghans are mostly Muslim while Indians are mostly Hindus but the similarity can be pointed out as regards marriage and women in finding their husbands. In both culture, women can be marrie...

Habang Wala Pa Sila: Mga Tula ng Pag-ibig By Juan Miguel Severo Abs-cbn Publishing Inc, 2016 Poetry with illustrations, 120 pages I never heard him yet doing his spoken poetry but when I opened the first few pages, he got me by first impression with his Basang Sapatos, he likened the heaviness of losing a love with the heaviness of his steps when his shoes are wet. Plus maybe, it's rainy season so I bought and read this collection. "Anak, nagmahal ka. Dapat masanay ka nang maglakad nang may mabigat na paa."  There are "trying hard" attempts in some pieces like in Naniniwala Ako, Maliwanag ang Langit, Malamig ang Gabi, and Parating Huli but Severo got me fully in a surprising number of pieces like in Bago Ka Umalis ng Bahay and Karaoke. While I understand that his pieces are meant to be heard as a tale, I didn't get bored with the length or by some Filipino words I just met. Most of the time, I smile and breeze through the reading as heart...

The Bookseller of Kabul Asne Sierstad Paperback, 276 pages Virago, 2004 Kabul is in Afghanistan and Mikrorayon is the hometown of our bookseller. When Journalist-author Asne Sierstad came to buy books from Sultan Khan after she joined the army operations for days searching for news, she became interested to the life lived by the man whose hopes is to build a huge library after the war ends. Sultan Khan had dedicated his life salvaging books in the name of Afghani literature and culture, and in the process, he was able to save some old books from wherever source. But keeping the books safe from illiterate soldiers who burn anything with living things on the cover or anything that seems immoral is a challenge that could even mean his liberty and life.  This extraordinary passion led the author to turn more stones and she proposed to live with the household of Sultan Khan. She was able to live with the Khans for four months and the resulting tale reveals a portrait of an Af...