Books about Philippines from Amazon.com

On January 28, 1945, 121 hand-selected U.S. troops slipped behind enemy lines in the Philippines Their mission: March thirty rugged miles to rescue 513 POWs languishing in a hellish camp, among them the last survivors of the infamous Bataan Death March. A recent prison massacre by Japanese soldiers elsewhere in the Philippines made the stakes impossibly high and left little time to plan the complex operation.

In Ghost Soldiers Hampton Sides vividly re-creates this daring raid, offering a minute-by-minute narration that unfolds alongside intimate portraits of the prisoners and their lives in the camp. Sides shows how the POWs banded together to survive, defying the Japanese authorities even as they endured starvation, tropical diseases, and torture. Harrowing, poignant, and inspiring, Ghost Soldiers is the mesmerizing story of a remarkable mission. It is also a testament to the human spirit, an account of enormous bravery and self-sacrifice amid the most trying conditions..
Price: $3.44 [Notify me when price goes down.]

As seen on TV, "The Hedonist" is the Sex Bible for Single Male vacations This in-depth guide is written for the Professional Hedonist, the guy who knows exactly what he wants, is willing to pay for it, and likes to spoil himself rotten. If you love exotic tropical excursions with Golf, Deep Sea Fishing, Casinos, and sexy young girls who always say yes, this book is for you. This detailed travel assistant covers 20 affordable tropical cities, from the hot spots in Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil, and the Caribbean, to a dozen untarnished island paradises in South America, Asia, and Europe, where you'll be treated like a King for $25! A fascinating read written from personal experiences, in a hysterical, Maxim-like sarcastic style that seems more like a Bachelor Party conversation than a travel guide. You'll learn the how and the where to go for all your sports activities, as well as meeting your uninhibited "dates", with the low down on the club procedures, pricing and terminology, and local updated websites w/maps and details. Red Light Districts, Brothels, full service nude strip clubs, massage parlors, outcall escorts, horny locals, beach play toys, whatever your preference, it's all here...complete with reviews, addresses, phone numbers, and first hand field reports. Included is a must-read 30 pages of Sex Tourism 101 advice on mastering the games and psychology of the local women you'll meet. This is the taboo Bachelor's Vacation Guide that we've all been waiting for, without a single politically correct word in it. All in all, a fantastic resource, packed with info you can't find anywhere else, over 200 pages of extensive, concise, well-researched advice. A real time and money saver. Why settle for anything but the best, and why gamble on hopes. Bet on the sure thing. The girls are waiting....
Price: $10.86 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"Found worms in my oatmeal this morning I shouldn't have objected because they had been sterilized in the cooking and I was getting fresh meat with my breakfast.... I'm still losing weight and so are most of us..."

Ruth Marie Straub, an Army nurse, wrote those words in her diary on March 15, 1942, just over three months after the Japanese first bombed the U.S. military base in Manila. She and her colleagues had evacuated the city and established, in the Philippine jungle, hospitals for the skyrocketing numbers of casualties. In the face of the advancing Japanese Army, the nurses and other military personnel continued to retreat, first to the Bataan Peninsula, and then to Corregidor, a rocky island in Manila Bay. Straub was one of the lucky ones; she was evacuated with a handful of other nurses in April 1942. Her remaining colleagues, meanwhile, surrendered with the rest of the U.S. forces in May and were taken to STIC--Santo Tomas Internment Camp, where they were to spend nearly three years in captivity.

We Band of Angels tells the stories of these courageous women, tagged by the American media as "The Angels of Bataan and Corregidor." Utilizing a wide range of sources, including diaries, letters, and personal interviews with surviving "Angels," Elizabeth M. Norman has compiled a harrowing narrative about the experiences of these women--from the country-club atmosphere of prewar Manila; to the jungle hospitals where patients slept on bamboo cots in the open air; to the Malinta Tunnel on Corregidor, where they choked on dust and worked while the bombs rained down above them; to the STIC, where per-person rations were cut to 900 calories a day and the women resorted to frying weeds in cold cream for food. The story Nelson tells is compelling but slightly flawed: like many biographers, Nelson has a deep affection and respect for her subjects, which causes her to soften rough edges. At the same time, however, Nelson argues that these women were not heroes--nor were they angels (in the acknowledgments, Nelson notes that she didn't want the word angels in the title, but the publishers had their way). Perhaps because Nelson is a nurse herself, she is trying to stress that her profession is noble and that these women were, in a sense, just fulfilling their duties.

Nursing is noble, of course, but it is clear that these women were something special. Amazingly, all of the Angels of Bataan, some 99 in number, survived their ordeal--and clearly helped hundreds of the other sufferers survive. We Band of Angels deserves a space on the bookshelves of anyone interested in World War II. --C.B. Delaney.
Price: $8.44 [Notify me when price goes down.]

"[Cendrillon is] daring, different and a sure remedy for the malady, too widespread these days, of dining déjà vu."-Frank Bruni, the New York Times

The essence of Filipino food has always remained somewhat secluded in the family kitchens of Filipino homes, passed down through the generations, melding native traditions with those of Chinese, Spanish, and American cuisines. With Memories of Philippine Kitchens Amy Besa and Romy Dorotan, owners and chef at Soho's popular Cendrillon restaurant, present a fascinating look at Filipino cuisine and culture. They have spent years tracing the traditions of the food of the Philippines, and here they share the results of that research. From Lumpia, Pancit, and Kinilaw to Adobo and Lehon (the art of the well-roasted pig), the authors document dishes and culinary techniques that are rapidly disappearing and in some cases unknown to Filipinos whether in the Philippines or abroad.

In addition to offering more than 100 unique recipes culled from private Filipino kitchens and their own acclaimed menu, Besa and Dorotan vividly document the role of food in Filipino society, both old and new. Filled with hundreds of sumptuous photographs by the esteemed Filipino photographer Neal Oshima and colorful stories of food memories from the authors and other notable local cooks, the book is a joy to peruse both in and out of the kitchen. .
Price: $21.10 [Notify me when price goes down.]

2004 ECPA Gold Medallion winner!

Soon after September 11, the news media stepped up its coverage of the plight of Martin and Gracia Burnham, the missionary couple captured and held hostage in the Philippine jungle by terrorists with ties to Osama Bin Laden. After a year of captivity, and a violent rescue that resulted in Martin's death, the world watched Gracia Burnham return home in June 2002 with a bullet wound in the leg and amazing composure.

In this riveting personal account, Burnham tells the real story behind the news about their harrowing ordeal, about how it affected their relationship with each other and with God, about the terrorists who held them, about the actions of the U.S. and Philippine governments, and about how they were affected by the prayers of thousands of Christians throughout the world..
Price: $4.46 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Butterfly explores love for sale in Southeast Asia and the sensuality of the twenty-six young ladies profiled in this erotic odyssey . . . sexual technique, travel, culture, history, politics, and Pattaya's wild celebration of Songkran. In Butterfly, our intrepid photojournalist is writing travel guides in Pattaya and Phnom Penh, shooting illustrations, and making love with pretty Thai and Vietnamese women every night. Butterfly is hot, relentless and explicit, a virtual Kama Sutra of sexual variations. . . . told in a man-to-man fashion. Author of ten guides to Southeast Asian destinations, Yang has woven a treasure of travel information into this erotic tour de force..
Price: $7.50 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Written for the non-native Filipino (Tagalog) reader who wants to learn the language to communicate with Filipino family and friends Emphasis on conversation. First fifteen lessons provide a tutorial introduction to the language; last fifteen lessons engage reader in complete conversations. Tutorial has two concurrent threads: 1) structure of the language and 2) vocabulary for and conversations about events in a typical work or school day. Regular use of accompanying CD a must for success. At end of book, student can expect to have vocabulary of 250 top Filipino words and speak at intermediate level. Book made lively by more than 100 line drawings, comic strips and photographs..
Price: $29.95 [Notify me when price goes down.]

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Price: $7.98 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Despite popular sentiments that World War II was in fact a good war, there was some disagreement about that immediately following the conflict. After the Marshall Plan and the "democratization" of Japan, conspiracy mongers accused forces in the U.S. government of assisting our former enemies in rebuilding their economic powers at the expense of our national interest. At their worst, these suspicions aided the rise of McCarthyism; at their best, they give us snappy espionage novels such as James Webb's The Emperor's General, which speculates that Douglas MacArthur lost the peace by allowing Japan to regain its sphere of influence in the Pacific Rim.

This hypothesis is presented by the book's protagonist, Jay Marsh, an inexperienced captain serving as one of MacArthur's aides. Throughout the course of the novel, young Marsh suspects that the general is shielding Japan's imperial elite from war-crimes trials being undertaken by various military commissions. He soon sheds his naïveté, becoming both seduced and appalled by the Japanese-U.S. alliance of global hegemony. Webb avoids the Grishamesque hit-and-run action sequences that sacrifice the "reality" of many conspiratorial novels, making Marsh into MacArthur's doppelgänger, a character whose intense love of the East is entangled with a sense of compromised honor. The general's loss of the Philippines is matched with Marsh's betrayal of his Filipina fiancée, propelling all the characters towards their destiny. The fact that the U.S. secured its military objectives by protecting Japan's leaders should come as no surprise to the historically informed, but the all too human motivations that Webb gives to MacArthur's actions ought to keep the reader hooked to the last page. --John M. Anderson.
Price: $3.05 [Notify me when price goes down.]

Escape to the Philippines! The Philippines boasts a string of coral-fringed islands, white-sand beaches and pristine strands of virgin rainforest. From diving to connecting with the locals, Lonely Planet will help you unlock the adventures to be enjoyed in this archipelago of natural wonders on the frontier of Southeast Asia.

We've Got It Covered – find everything from the rice terraces in the north to the fertile volcanic plateaus in the south.

Jump In With The Expert – from getting started to finding the best dive sites, our special diving chapter shows you the ropes.

Rest Easy – accommodation options to suit all tastes and budgets, from rustic nipa huts to luxury resorts.

Get Around with the help of over 95 maps to cities, islands, and everywhere in between.

Talk The Talk – chat with the locals with the help of our indispensable Language chapter.
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Price: $16.00 [Notify me when price goes down.]