#elainecastillo

#currentlyreading an advance reader copy of "America is Not the Heart" by Elaine Castillo. It's a debut novel written by a Filipina American centered around three generations of filipina women. It occurs during and after Philippine martial law in the Marcos era and in San Francisco. I'm absolutely in love with this #novel! I never read a better prologue. This #book is so dynamic, rich, and captivating. As a filam, i connect to this stupendous work and see my family in it as well. And isn't the #bookcover just striking!? I wish I could share excerpts but i can't do that with an #ARC. I wanna buy a copy when it launches on April 3rd and tell everyone about it. I can tell that this tome will mean a lot to me and i haven't hit page 40 yet. I'm definitely gonna staff pick it. I wouldn't have discovered this book if i wasn't working at a bookstore. So grateful for this opportunity. Thank you @vikingbooks for publishing this! As a Pinay who rarely sees herself in the page, I'm ecstatic to feel so connected and acknowledged. The writing is beautiful and I'm learning so much. #elainecastillo you are amazing. #bookstagram #allpinayeverything #filam #filipino #debutnovel

The SUNDAY SPOTLIGHT is here! And today we highlight a book that will challenge your thoughts around reading. It’s always pleasurable when you can pick up a book and be intellectually stimulated and actually learn something. I got my copy from @kindredstorieshtx. In my brief thoughts, I wrote; ✍🏾 Some great points made in this collection. Expanded my idea of reading and expounded upon some of the familiar tropes we readers parrot about reading. Reading creates empathy. That pithy saying was delightfully destroyed. And her discussion of representation writing was nuanced and prescient. “Representation Matters Art is still, ultimately, just another armed wing of the attentive arts of white supremacy: it’s the kind of art you make when someone has told you to prove you’re a human—and you agree. It’s art that makes us stupider, the way white supremacy makes us stupider: it was bad enough to rob us of life, land, and language, but style, too, babe? It’s the kind of art you make when every impulse you have is a conditioned fear response to some imaginary white specter in the audience, in the mirror.” All-in-all a very good collection of essays that takes a fine razor to the culture of book reading and inflicts a thousand cuts all the while informing and creating smarter readers. This book needs to be on your shelf. #howtoreadnow #elainecastillo #ownvoicesreviews #readmorebooks #blackbibliophile #goodreads #kindredstories #booksaremylife #readingismylife #makereadinglitagain #sundayspotlight #vikingpress (at Houston, Texas) https://www.instagram.com/p/CmUBZ7zL7zJ/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

Thank you to everyone who joined in our Jade City chat! Here’s co-host @glaiza_echo’s current read: Curious to read a story centred around three generations of Filipinas. Picked up America Is Not The Heart by #ElaineCastillo ahead of Syd Writers Fest 🌻 #HistoricalFiction #ownvoices #librarybooks https://www.instagram.com/p/Bvpojoln2yE/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=65dvzcnm589t

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, and I’m kicking it off by sharing the book I just read: America Is Not the Heart by @_elainecastillo . I’ve had a difficult time articulating my thoughts about this impressive debut novel because, for me, reading this was more about a “feeling,” feelings of intimacy, of watching the lives of this family in 1990s Milpitas, CA. I could relate to the characters culturally (the language, even though I don’t speak, the food, the mannerisms, social dynamics, etc.) and yet, they are strangers with layered backstories that I’ve come to know more about with the turn of each page. As a Filipina- American I continually seek Fil-Am literature. There is recognition but, at the same time, understand the depth and diversity of the immigrant experience plus a desire to learn more about our multiple histories and identities and the tension between our past and present selves that comes along with them. The people of America Is Not the Heart live beyond the novel’s pages and am thankful to Elaine Castillo for sharing them with us. . . . #AmericaIsNottheHeart #elainecastillo #filamliterature #apahm