A new book calls for a celebration! In the age of AI, cellphones and larger screens, there’s no solitary pleasure to compare with the lonely joy of reading a book.

A new book with its pristine covers and crisp white pages covered with words – what’s not to like? A book holds a promise. If the promise turns out to be a dud after the first page, what’s there to lose? Throw it away. But when a book keeps you going, long into the night, how could you switch off the light on your bedside table?

When a classmate from long ago invited me to her book launch, and after reading the blurb for Marichelle Roque-Lutz’ The House by the Beach, which its publishers describe as historical fiction, there was no need to convince myself: Go!

Let me not get ahead of myself. First, I wanted to see Cielo again, after all these years. (She remembers we were classmates in only one subject, possibly creative writing, UST.) The venue for the launch, a cozy Orchid Garden Suites in Malate, Pasay City, sounded promising. A light drizzle made the night, the temperature, and the book seem more a reason to go than not to.

As book launches go, this one was a party. But for two pieces of furniture conspicuously set in the middle of the room: a chair and a table piled high with copies of the book, and a black pen. The author’s guests came and went, but mostly they stayed, long enough to take a drink (iced tea, please), fried chicken wings, and a cocktail sandwich.

I did not stay long enough to ask how many copies of the book flew off the table, but Cielo, black pen in hand, could not have looked happier.

Once a year Cielo comes home to Manila from her other home in New Holland, Pennsylvania, where her hobbies are reading, gardening, tournament Scrabble, attending concerts and operas. Her husband is David Lutz.

The House by the Beach is set in Cuyo, Palawan, “based on the life of my grandparents”. It opens with a family tree, for a semblance of history with real people, including the family who occupy the house, in 1884. The story ends three generations later.