I am a Filipino-American woman who is interested in learning more about what modern life is like in the Philippines. I was born and raised in the US, and although I’ve always been close with my family and culture, I have only ever visited the Philippines twice in my life and was never taught the language.
I’ve found that reading firsthand experiences from people who live in another country is a great way to get an in-depth understanding of their cultural norms and day-to-day life. I recently finished Monsoon Mansion by Cinelle Barnes and was hoping to find something similar, but nearly every book suggestion I looked at was centered around immigrating to another country, or took place in a different country for a large portion of the story.
In summary, I would like to read a modern (late 90s to present day) Filipino story where the characters actually stay in the Philippines. So if anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them. I would mainly prefer memoirs or nonfiction books to get a more accurate viewpoint, but I’m open to fiction suggestions too, so long as they don’t lean too heavily into fantasy and are still accurate to the real-life setting.
by PowerStorm55