Before the day ends, I wanted to send a happy publishing day to E.P. Tuazon! This book was my very first ARC - what a total honor. Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to read your book before its release date.

Now, onto the book review :)

This squirrel brain of mine ate up all the short stories woven into A Professional Lola. It’s real, yet magical… and it celebrates so many nuances growing up Filipino in America.

Prepare to LOL at the absurdity of some stories and shed a tear or two in others as characters grapple with loss, love, and the complexities of Fil-Am identity. Whether it's navigating cultural expectations or embracing one's queer identity, Tuazon portrays each experience in such a raw and whimsical way. Since it’s written in short form, some stories may feel like you’re left hangin!! There were a handful of times where I felt like I wanted and needed more for the stories to feel complete (I know, I know, it’s the nature of short stories!) but at the end I found this to be an intentional author move - pushing us to lean into the discomfort of the grey space of navigating identity and accepting non-closure in some scenarios we go through in life.

My final thought is that there were a loooot of direct translation of Tagalog words. While helpful for folks unfamiliar with the language, it would occasionally disrupt the flow of the story for me. Trusting the context within the narrative to allow readers to infer the Tagalog word meanings is something I would have like to see more of. With that said though, I know it’s a privilege to have been taught Tagalog given that a lot my fellow Fil-Am brothers and sisters were never taught the language in the first place.

Overall, "A Professional Lola" was a quick, enjoyable read and would highly recommend to anyone looking for some Filipino centered magical realism. Enjoy pamilya!!

I love how much representation seeps from every page and how full of honesty and love for the culture is within these short stories.

4.25/5 stars

A Professional Lola by EP Tuazon is a short story anthology featuring stories from folks in the Filipinx-American diaspora. This book adds a touch of the surreal as it explores the themes of family, love, identity, queerness, and grief.

I’ve spent so much of my avid reader life looking for myself and my friends and family written and reflected in the pages of the books I read. Due to publishing (slowly) expanding and diversifying from the straight white cis-hetero norm, I have only recently had the chance to be finding and reading more Filipinx American literature written by Filipinx American authors. In this anthology, I found the names and variations of my uncles, my friends, cousins of friends, my own family name, as well as the exact man my very own dad was named for (who was not in fact Filipino, but that’s besides the point lol).

As an American-born daughter to Filipinx immigrants, growing up I was not taught to speak fluent Filipino. Having said that, I have a pretty decent grasp of Filipino when spoken in casual conversation. My relationship to reading the language in this book had its own journey; I felt myself taking extra care in mentally reading aloud the written text and found that I understood most of it. However, it was a clunky experience— I did not realize *how much* I understood until it felt like it *was* spoken out loud. (Honestly, really helpful that Filipino is phonetic.) As a heritage speaker, reading written Filipino language felt like some sort of simultaneous mix of redemption and homecoming. I could taste the accents that speak of home and family and family from the homeland.

Another thing I found throughout these stories was the incorporation of Filipino food. I recognize the home found in the relationship between the characters and the food found on page. Speaking for myself and the FilAm social circles with whose company I keep, a core experience for being a part of the Filipinx diaspora involves connecting and reconnecting with our culture and motherland through food— it is also oftentimes (most times? every time?) a cultural means of saying, “I love you.” In the short story, “Bellow Below,” one of the characters decides to make bilo-bilo for dessert. This was a food that my family traditionally made and ate together specifically for New Year’s because part of family and cultural traditions includes surrounding ourselves with round things for good luck in the near year (hence the literal translation of bilo-bilo to balls balls). Additionally some other Filipino food mentions from the short stories, “A Professional Lola” and “The Second Panaderya Attack” that were specific to my own life include silog (the perfect breakfast, honestly), sisig (the go-to fundraiser food sold on campus by my university’s Filipinx organization), Filipino spaghetti (my personal favorite often eaten on birthdays for long noodles, long life), and pandesal (especially when eaten warm with butter or dipped in coffee, *chef’s kiss!!!!!* — when I was a child, almost similar to the main character of “The Second Panaderya Attack,” my parents often made a point of buying fresh pandesal first thing in the morning from the bakery next to Green Hills before it closed; rip).

At times, I found myself wondering if this anthology is categorized under the genre of magical realism. I’m honestly not sure where this book lies as it relates to the contemporary to surreal to magical realism where category classifications demand certain definitions. Genuine question: is there a spectrum between surreal and magical realism? I don’t know, but I was certainly left feeling some type of way from the surreal aspects woven into these stories. I was specifically taught that magical realism is a post-colonial genre of fiction that has roots born from resisting and opposing oppression, originating from Latin American authors (lol hello @ all the Latin American countries with whom the Philippines shares a colonizer). Because of what I learned in class, I’ve been dancing along the lines of how this anthology fits within that definition. But perhaps I am overthinking it and, in the case of this book, should allow surreal to encapsulate and settle where any definitions and boundaries lie. This questioning didn’t necessarily take me out of the book— instead the surreal built up the stories in ways that somehow made them feel like they actually made more sense than if that element had been absent.

Additionally, while my own family is not from Eagle Rock, a lot of my FilAm friends have called and still call Eagle Rock home, and the inclusion and acknowledgment of the Filipinx community in Eagle Rock as well as San Diego (where some of my relatives live) is so right and true to our diaspora in Southern California. It’s just so comforting to see this representation reflected in literature.

Furthermore, in my journey in connecting with the Filipino culture, I’ve taken part in my fair share of Filipino Cultural Nights/Celebrations within the Catholic church I grew up going to as well as the Filipinx organization at my university. It was surprising? Amazing? Heartwarming. Validating. Cathartic, perhaps, to see itik-itik on the pages of the story story, “Tiny Dancer,” when that was a dance that I, myself, performed when I was in the third grade. (I even still remember the exact basic dance step described in the short story and could probably quack my way alongside that character.)

Finally, I want to acknowledge that there is no one singular experience or story that epitomizes the entirety of being one part of a whole diaspora, so I fully understand that every individual experience will be different; there is no one story that is more valid than another. I will, however, say that reading this book felt like I could’ve been stepping into the thoughts and lives of many people in my own life and community. I say this with the upmost affection—reading this book felt like putting on my black knee-high socks that are part of my signature outfits (when the weather permits) after they’ve gone missing for years, or maybe rather, it felt like finally finding my perfect pair of black, knee-high socks that I’ve been looking for my entire life with a touch of that Cinderella magic and that Goldilocks (see what I did there 👀) feeling of just right.

Thank you, Netgalley and Red Hen Press, for the ARC!

I adored these short stories. Set in a slice-of-life and magical realism setting, it’s a perfect glimpse to the Filipino-American culture and dynamics. It explores various themes of grief and diaspora that I’m sure would make fellow Filipino-Americans feel seen.

Thank you to Netgalley and Red Hen Press for the ARC! :>

A great insight to Filipino-American culture and their relationship with their Filipino roots, family, and food. But at times I feel like the switch to Filipino language felt a bit forced and made some conversations feel a bit unnatural. Overall, this is a good, lighthearted read.

If you’re going to read one story, it has to be the titled story “Professional Lola”! I would love to read an entire book about it!!!! It had me sobbing and missing my grandma so so much. It was every bit funny and heartfelt and ughhh just so good!!

All up — what a wonderful collection of stories set in the Phillipines to America. I felt the start of the collection was very strong with some unique and very different stories and towards the end they were okay!

Would definitely recommend.

This was a great collection of short stories. I liked the different type of family dynamics while reading different shot stories. It was a quick read.

I got an e-arc of this book on NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thank you to Red Hen Press and E.P. Tuazon for a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I always find rating and reviewing collections of short stories to be very difficult. In this some of the stories were great and the others were a little forgettable, but overall I had a great time reading. It is always great to see characters that reflect people you grew up with. The pandesal story is one that I feel sticks out for me.

Overall, great read. If you are looking for something a little bit different than your normal large novel read, this would be a great pick

What a lovely collection of short stories! These stories, focusing mainly on the filipino-american experience, were exactly the right mix of heartfelt, interesting and strange for me. As always with story collections, there were some that didn't land with me, but the ones that did fully made up for that.

The last two stories, Handog and Caraboa, which deal mainly with family relationships, were my fav. Also Tiny dancer! All in all, just a really lovely read, that's all I can say lol.

Thanks to Netgalley and Red Hen press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I’m not the biggest reader of short stories but I absolutely loved this collection of short stories. A Professional Lola is comprised of short stories showcasing Filipino culture across topics from dealing with grief and family relationships. I loved getting to learn more about filipino culture from this and seeing it tie into magic realism. Tuazon did a beautiful job crafting these stories to showcase harder themes dealing with internalized racism or queerness in a traditional culture. My favorite story is the first one with the professional Lola, hired by a family to act as their lola for a birthday party.

Thank you to Netgalley and Red Hen Press for the advanced reader copy. All opinions are my own.

Rating: 3.5 rounded up
As a Filipinx American, I always enjoy being able to see myself on the pages. There were about 3/4 of the stories that I enjoyed more than others, with the Professional Lola being one of my favorites. I have never heard of that being a thing, and it made me wonder how I would feel about it, especially with me not being close to the only grandmother I knew. (Everyone else had passed before I was born).

There were pieces of magical realism that sometimes made it difficult to connect or resonate. I think if it was more of a fictional story with more plot, I would have enjoyed those pieces more. In general, I really enjoyed the themes of family, identity, and the inclusion of LGBTQ issues.

3.5 stars, rounded up. Whether the Filipina girlfriend with an intriguing brand of kleptomania in Tiny Dancer, or the reserved immigrant father who raised his Fil-Am son on Bukowski and Frost, A Professional Lola and Other Stories is at its best when we’re shown a glimpse into its characters interior lives. These pieces have a lot of heart, intimate in its depiction of Filipino families, friends, and lovers reaching towards each other across borders and generations.

With that in mind, I had a few minor gripes with how language---particularly of homeland Filipinos---was used in the book. A lot of the times, the way characters who grew up in the Philippines speak was unnatural. Examples were aforementioned characters redundantly repeating things both in Tagalog and English (“Hindi ko alam. I don’t know.”), or mixing ‘Taglish’ in ways far from our vernacular (“Doesn’t matter ang gagawin. Bonding-bonding na!” is spoken by an elderly Filipina woman). You could argue that this wording was utilized by Filipinos speaking to their Americanized children, but as someone fluent in both the language and the culture of interacting with your ‘kano relatives, I think Tuazon could have gotten a few more opinions regarding the authenticity of how their homeland characters sounded.

Despite this, I still recommend A Professional Lola and Other Stories, especially to readers of Haruki Murakami and Elaine Castillo! If you’re looking for a light, meditative collection of slice-of-life stories, read this. If you’re a part of the Asian-American diaspora, read this. If you’re queer and from the Philippines, read this. There’s a little bit of magic in this book for everyone.

Thank you to NetGalley and Red Hen Press for the digital ARC.

A beautiful collection. Many of these stories spoke to me, as a person of the Filipinx diaspora. We need books like this. We all deserve books like this. I'm a big fan!

Thank you to NetGalley and Red Hen Press for providing me with a digital copy in exchange for an honest review.

So, I recently dove into "Professional Lola" by E. P. Tuazon, and let me tell you, it was quite the ride. It's like it cracked open a window into Filipino-American culture and invited me in 😊

I was pleasantly surprised at how deeply some of the stories resonated with me. Coming from a culture with similar (and, at the same time different) dynamics, they felt like some of my own family/friends stories.

But here's the kicker: it doesn't hold your hand through it all. There were moments when I had to hit up Google for some translations or cultural references, and yeah, a glossary at the end would've been nice. But you know what? I kinda liked it. It felt like the book was treating me like an adult, respecting my intelligence, and letting me figure things out on my own.

Now, let me tell you about the writing. It's beautiful, plain, and simple in a way that just pulls you in. Even if some of the plots didn't quite land for me, it made it worth the read.

I also gotta say some of the stories felt like they ended a bit abruptly, leaving me hanging like a cliffhanger in a Netflix series. But maybe that's on me. I haven't read short stories in a minute, so take this part with a grain of salt.

In the end, "Professional Lola" is a wild ride through the complexities of Filipino-American life. It's got heart, humor, and just a touch of magic sprinkled in. It touches on deep themes like being LGBTQIA+ in a society steeped in tradition, family dynamics, grief, and even internalized racism. So, if you're looking for a book that's gonna make you think, make you feel, and maybe even make you laugh a little, this one's for you. Trust me, you won't regret it.

Thank you NetGalley and Red Hen Press for the ARC! My opinion is my own.

[3.5 stars rounded up]
A Professional Lola is an anthology of 13 stories rich with Filipino culture and the experiences of the Filipino diaspora living in Los Angeles. As a Filipino, I find the stories so refreshing with the accurate representation of Filipino culture (and food!), and I feel so homesick (even though I already live in the homeland). The stories themselves have a certain vibe that's both uncanny and nostalgic, and I love the exploration of themes like complicated family relationships, queer & trans identity, grief, and reconnecting with your roots. I said that the stories felt uncanny because there was just something about the stories that felt like deja vu to me, I don't know what exactly but it's maybe the characters themselves that remind me of someone, or the setting (which isn't a bad thing; it just took me by surprise). With this book being an anthology, there are of course, some stories that didn't quite hit me as hard as the others. My favorite stories include the titular Professional Lola, Far From Home, After Bigfoot, Handog, and Carabao.

If you're a big fan of magical realism, exploring Filipino culture, or looking for complex short stories that pack so much emotion and humanity, this book is for you :)

I'm not the biggest fan of short stories because they always leave me wanting more, but there were quite a few short stories I enjoyed in this book. I love that there was representation of both general things people know about Filipinos and the nuances of Filipino culture. Some of the stories that stuck out to me were the couple that robbed a panaderya, the coven casting a spell on their husbands, and the son returning to his father's home after he disappears. There are elements of magical realism in some of the stories, while others are more realistic. There is a little bit of something for everyone.

Absolutely loved this book. I didn't know I needed to read something like this, but I'm so glad I did. Would definitely recommend this to people!

3.5 stars. As someone from Southeast Asia, I was keen to try out this collection of short stories that would shine a spotlight on Filipino culture, even as it came through a Filipino-American lens. Personally, I feel the strongest stories were the ones that dealt with the relationships between the different generations, kicking off this collection strong with "Professional Lola" and ending just as solid with "Carabao". I was also pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of LGBTQ+ issues, but grateful and pleased nonetheless. A charming read!

3.5⭐
This was an enjoyable read. it's like a book you read in class and discuss it and I would really like to be in that classroom and hear how others interpret things in it.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't entirely sure what I was getting myself into when I started this book, but once I started reading I couldn't stop. As a Filipina-American with a love for magical realism, these short stories were very much aligned with my interests, and it was so refreshing to see myself represented in a simultaneously contemporary and surreal setting.

Beyond the fact of representation, I really liked the topics covered in the short stories, as well. There is a beautiful exploration of grief, family, and navigating queerness in the titular Professional Lola tale; working through the complicated nature of half-sibling relationships in After Bigfoot, and understanding a loved one's transition in Carabao. My personal favorite was probably Handog, which was centered on the strained relationship between a father and son & the ways they're able to connect (& not.)

The only thing that I didn't enjoy about some of the stories was the way some of them felt like they came to a bit more of an abrupt ending while reading them. However, I think that's more a fault of my constant desire to get more out of a short story than is in the nature of the genre, rather than a fault of this particular book itself. Reflecting on these stories a couple days after reading them (as well as revisiting them again after the first pass) allows them to settle much more satisfactorily to my mind.

Overall, I definitely recommend this for folks who are a fan of magical realism & even more so to those who are looking to read some emotional/exploratory stories, largely about family, that are deeply rooted in the Filipino-American experience. It was so delightful to see my own family/relationships reflected in these texts & I'm very grateful to E.P. Tuazon for sharing these with the world!