Ambeth Ocampo's Looking Back trilogy (Looking Back, Dirty Dancing, and Death by Garrote) are essays he wrote for the Philippine Daily Inquirer about historical Filipinos and events (as others say, tsismis). There are, for example, writings about the love story of Andres Bonifacio and Gregoria de Jesus, Pres. Manuel Quezon's temper, and Graciano Lopez Jaena's drinking problem. It's certainly a break from the monotonous books we were made to read in high school - those which glorified the events but made them as distant as Jupiter to us. In this trilogy, Ocampo makes use of data which cannot be gleaned from these books. He delves deep into the lives of heroes and presidents and presents them as people that are vulnerable, in short, just like you and me.
It's a fun read, I'm sure everyone will enjoy it. :)
