off the press: LIES MY YAYA SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME

LIES MY YAYA SHOULD HAVE TOLD ME RJ Ledesma's Imaginary Guide to Whine and Women 116 pages, 5 x 8 in. bookpaper, softcover SRP: P295.00

Yes, he was the boy in the old Royal Tru-Orange ad

RJ LEDESMA has been living many parallel lives, all of which converge into one universe. It’s either that or he’s schizophrenic. Still unsure if he has ADHD, RJ used to hawk an orange soft drink in the late eighties, was a one-time college professor in Public Speaking and Economics at his alma mater, De La Salle University-Manila, worked as a brand manager for a multinational company, and was a frenetic television host for ABS-CBN’s Magandang Umaga Bayan Weekends.

In a move that made him popular among MTRCB censors, RJ co-conceptualized and developed, with stand-up comedian Tim Tayag, a late-night comedy show called The Men’s Room (Studio 23, Wednesday nights, 11:30 p.m.). He also hosts ABC-5’s Tahanang Pinoy on Sundays, 11:00 a. m.

A fellow in the National Writers Workshop in Dumaguete City (1994), RJ loves to write, but obstacles like work often get in the way. Aside from working in the family property development firm, he is the editor in chief of Manual magazine, a television and events host, a comic book geek, an eclectic book collector, an Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga practitioner and erstwhile teacher, an ovo-lacto vegetarian, and manservant to his fiancée. Sleep is something he used to do. RJ also lives in constant fear that he and his hair will soon part ways.

The hilarious essays in this book are his way of coping with the hazards of dating in the twenty-first century. His baffling theories about the opposite sex were born in his previous column in the Manila Times called “Playing With My Tools,” and in his current column for the Philippine Star called “Pogi from a Parallel Universe.”