...observe...react...

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky My rating: 4 of 5 stars 4.4 The amazing thing about Perks of Being A Wallflower is that I am able to relate and not relate at the same time. It's like being enlightened and confused at the same time. There were really times that I was unable to relate to Charlie. Some of his actions didn't make any sense to me, but the good thing about it was that I was able to gain a new perspective. There were also a lot of times that Charlie managed to confuse me as he was confused. It was irritating because it became a bit difficult to understand him, but it allowed to understand what he was going through. But perhaps the greatest thing about Perks was that it confirmed something I've learned before: "Be there and participate." I believe that was the point of the entire book. The only reason Charlie could write those letters is because he's a wallflower, and that ending those letters meant he...

The Philippines: A Past Revisited by Renato Constantino My rating: 5 of 5 stars Excerpt from Ch. 18: "When there is an attempt to understand society not in terms of myths and theories but in terms of the concrete experiences and sufferings of the people, history acquires practical significance. For only if they are armed with a concrete understanding of Philippine reality can the Filipino people act correctly to change that reality. And this understanding can come about by a systematic and patriotic effort to synthesize the experience of the past in order to obtain a concrete vision of the future. History, then, should serve the purpose of integrating seemingly isolated facts and events into a coherent historical process so that a view of the totality of social reality may be achieved. Only then can facts be really understood and not be merely known; only then can this understanding of facts become an understanding of society; only then can history b...