Dear friends,
This June reading wrap-up is very late because my family and I went on a vacation and the following week we travelled again for a cousin’s weekday wedding. In between those travel days, my family stayed over at our house so I was occupied being a host. I had almost zero alone time to read and write. Now that the bags are unpacked, laundry washed, and budgets reevaluated, I’m finally able to sit down and write. But first here’s a picture where we went on a vacation.
Everything I Read in June
I was only able to read 4 books in June with one DNF. In between our trips I was busy planning so I had little time than the usual to read. Nevertheless, 3 of these 4 books were so good!
Chilco by Daniela Catrileo and translated by Jacob Goldstein
Chilco is about Mari and Pascale's flight from Capital City to Chilco, Pascale's home island. There's a mysterious air surrounding Chilco, an underlying darkness that kept me on edge but is never truly explained. Capital City, on the other hand, is in the brink of environmental and economic collapse due to greed and capitalism by a large real estate corporation. Sinkholes appear in multiple locations, food is scarce, and the government doesn't help its people.
Throughout the pages, Catrileo explores themes of colonialism, displacement, capitalism, and collective memory. These themes bleed in and out of the narrative like a fever dream, sometimes incoherent and unstructured. And like a fever dream, it left a strong impression.
Reading Chilco made me look into my country's own colonial past. I wrote more about it here.
Chilco by Daniela Catrileo is out in July 2025. Thank you so much Charco Press for the ARC!
Ang Nawawalang Barangay by
Ang Nawawalang means The Missing. The last word, Barangay, however, doesn’t have a direct English translation. A barangay is the smallest political unit within a city or a municipality. It is the most local level of government in the Philippines and is similar to a village or a district in other countries. For the purposes of understanding the title better, it can be translated to The Missing Village. Maybe somebody else can correct me what’s the more apt word?
The novel is written in Tagalog. It revolves around Bree, a small-time investigator who looks into the disappearance of several individuals in her barangay. The novel is part mystery and part social commentary on local politics and religious groups. The book is outrageous and the writing is funny. Every comedic punchline is well-timed and well-delivered. I feel like I’m watching a stand-up comedy. It captures barangay life and politics, a close knit of people who grew up in the same place all their lives, very accurately. You can just imagine the chaos these people brings when faced with a problem.
In my head I can very much picture out Bree because I know so many people who would look and act like her. Even though the book is comedy gold, it talks about serious subjects and the characters are caricatures of actual politicians and government heads here in the Philippines. Although Pascual doesn't explicitly say their names, you can tell who they are.
This book has no English translation yet but I wonder how the Filipino humor will translate into English. The book is full of pop culture, inside jokes, and gay lingo. For example, there’s a scene in the book where Bree references a Vilma Santos and Nora Aunor stare-off which is hilarious if you’ve grown up watching these two actresses. We are only halfway through the year but I think this will surely be in my top 10 best books of 2025.
A portion of this review has already been published in an old newsletter - Books to Get to Know the Philippines Part 2. Go check that out if you want to read more Filipino books.
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
This is my second du Maurier and I am mind blown by how she creates her unreliable narrators and complex characters.
Ambrose Ashley is the owner of a large estate in Cornwall and is guardian to his orphaned cousin, Philip, since Philip was a child. They have a loving relationship and Ambrose treats Philip like his own child. All is good is in the estate and both didn't need much anything else outside the four corners of their home until Ambrose leaves for Italy and marries a cousin of theirs - Rachel. Philip regularly receives happy letters from Ambrose but, gradually, the tone of his letters change from blissful to suspicious of Rachel. Phillip immediately travels to Italy to see Ambrose but he is too late. Ambrose has died. Philip loathes Rachel because of the suspicious letters he received and suspects she has killed Ambrose. To exact revenge on her, Philip invites Rachel to the estate. But when he sees Rachel for the first time - he saw why Ambrose fell in love with her.
What I loved about My Cousin Rachel is that du Maurier leaves it to the reader to answer their own questions about Rachel. I think I love this more than Rebecca just because of the mind tricks du Maurier plays on you. By the end of the book you will never know if Rachel is guilty or not. Or if she is the bad guy or is it the men in her life?
All the men in Rachel's life says they love her but tries to control her. They don't really care for Rachel and just sees her as a woman to be had. They put her up on a pedestal and crown her with a halo but doesn't see her as just somebody who is living her own life too. They forget that she is just human. And so, when they see something that doesn't line with the way they want her, they get jealous and descent into madness. I will say nothing more. I already said too much. But I hope this will entice you to read the book. My Cousin Rachel is as good as Rebecca, if not better, if only because of the ambiguity du Maurier gave to Rachel's intentions.
I am excited to read more of du Maurier but hopefully a book that's set other than in an English estate. Any recommendations for me?
Notes of a Crocodile by Qiu Miaojin and translated by Bonnie Huie
This was my book club’s June pick in honor of Pride month. Technically, I DNF’ed this book with only 30 pages left (I know! Who does that!) but I will consider this read.
Notes of a Crocodile is a queer coming of age story styled as journal notes by Lazi, a university student in Taiwan. Lazi chronicles college life - the lessons she learned and the relationships she has formed. While I enjoyed reading about Lazi's college life - biking around the university, organizing college organization programs, going to and from classes, I wanted to DNF this from the first 10 page. If it weren’t for the book club, I wouldn’t have gone reading this for so long. I didn’t like the book mostly because the relationships here were toxic and the characters were unlikeable and self-sabotaging. It became tiresome after a while. However, this is not the book’s fault. I know a lot of people love Notes of a Crocodile. If I had read this when I was younger and still had the same ideals as the characters, I would have probably been swept away by this book.
I also understand this book’s significance in Taiwanese queer literature. In between chapters, Qiu Miaojin writes about a crocodile living in a human skin which is a metaphor for being a queer that’s forced to live in a disguise in a society that doesn’t accept queerness. If you want to read more queer Taiwanese literature, try The Membranes by Chi Ta-Wei.
Have you read any of the books I mentioned above? If yes, let me know which ones and if you liked them.
What I Want to Read in July
I have actually already finished two books as of this writing and I am currently reading If on a winter’s night a traveler. I have one more trip this July so who knows how many I can read in this stack.
In case you missed this..
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I hope you enjoyed your vacation! thank you for stellar reading recs as always — I’m interested to learn more about Notes of a Crocodile and The Membranes.. Chilco is already on my list from your earlier piece ☺️🙏
Putting My Cousin Rachel on my TBR!