January's Book List

As I mentioned in my first blog post for 2021, it's been an annual tradition of mine for ten years, to publish a list of the books I had read the previous year. These lists would be posted onto my sorryalltheclevernamesaretaken blog on January 1st. This year, the list was also posted onto my new blog.

As of this month comes to an end, I'll be adding another dimension. Starting today, I'll be posting, on the last day of the month, a list of the books I've read during the month.

I've written blog posts on a few of these books already this month.

Forever Amber                                           Kathleen Winsor
The Cabin (La barraca)                              Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
The Torrent                                                 Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse      Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
Blood and Sand                                           Vicente Blasco Ibáñez
The Quadroon                                             Mayne Reid
Twilight Sleep                                            Edith Wharton
Caritas in veritate                                       Pope Benedict XVI
The Children                                              Edith Wharton
Glimpses of the Moon                                Edith Wharton

Our New Gate

Its been one week since I last posted on the wall we had built around our property in Magatas, Sibulan. The photos today are of the gate that has been installed.

Of course, we're very pleased with the work, although the gate is heavier than we expected. I'm not complaining......I was just surprised. I said I wanted a top quality gate, and that's exactly what we have.

We're to keep the gate closed for the rest of the day. There is some cement that will need to set up.

It's been my practice to divide the photos I've taken, using half on each of my blogs.

Links to both blogs will follow below.

Our New Gate
The New Gate

 

Squad Urges Biden to Commute Death Row Sentences

 

U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and other members of the progressive "Squad" are doubling down on their call for President Biden to end Federal executions and commute the sentences of 49 death-row inmates currently in federal prisons.

This is, of course, a reaction to Trump's revival of federal executions and the 13 executions carried out in the final months of Trump's term as President. I can certainly agree with congresswoman Pressley's desire to stop capital punishment in the United States, but as I pointed out in a blog post written last month, I would feel much better if Pressley's idea of "pro-life" extended to the unborn as well.

I know it is difficult for some to feel merciful toward convicted murderers. Going that step forward isn't always easy. However, I cannot understand how one can feel compassion toward those on death row and still have a callous attitude toward unborn human beings.

In a letter to President Biden, Democrats wrote,

"We believe that rebuilding the dignity of America requires that we recommit ourselves to the tradition of due process, mercy, and judicial clemency when it comes to matters related to the criminal legal system". Yet, there is no "due process, mercy or clemency" for the unborn.

In their letter, Democrats also claimed that President Trump left behind a legacy of "carnage and unrestrained violence" because of the number of executions in the last months of his presidency. True enough, but do they not see the legacy of carnage in the 62 million abortions that have been carried out in the U.S. since the Roe vs Wade decision of 1973?

When Pressley's fellow Democrat, Rep. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) expressed sympathy for the 13 death row inmates executed under Trump (including one self identified white supremacist) Bush's supporters applauded her for having a consistent approach to opposing the death penalty.

I wish her approach to all life was as consistent.

The Quadroon, by Mayne Reid

Finishing Forever Amber on the first day of January, I searched my computer files for another book to read.

I had a file containing ebooks that were set aside to be read in 2018, but had somehow not made their way into the queue. Several of these ebooks were translations of the novels of  Vicente Blasco Ibáñez. I transferred a number of the ebooks to my Kindle and began reading The Cabin (La barraca). I went on to read The Torrent (Entre Naranjos), Sangre y arena (Blood and Sand) and reread  Los cuatro jinetes del Apocalipsis (The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse). 

In The Torrent , Blasco Ibáñez mentions that the protagonist, Rafael Brull had read the novels of James Fenimore Cooper and Mayne Reid. Not being familiar with Reid, I immediately typed his name into a search engine and came upon a wikipedia page about him.

Mayne Reid (April 4, 1818 – October 22, 1883) was born in Ireland, and lived for a time in the U.S., - even fighting in the American-Mexican War (1846–1848).

The wikipedia article goes on the explain that Reid wrote several action filled, adventure novels along the lines of Robert Louis Stevenson. Reid's novels were an inspiration to Teddy Roosevelt, Arthur Conan Doyle, and obviously, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez.

Reading such high praise of Mayne Reid, I knew I'd want to read at least one of his novels. Project Gutenberg has more than 50 of Reid's novels available for download; I did not know where to begin.

The same wikipedia article lists his anti-slavery novel, The Quadroon as one of his best selling. No better place to start, I thought.

Published in 1853, the story takes place in Louisiana. For reasons unclear to me, the protagonist chooses to go under a false name - Edward Rutherford. Coming from Britain, Rutherford is appalled by the brutality and atrocities inherent in slavery. Rutherford falls in love with a slave named Aurore who is described as a "quadroon". In slave societies, a quadroon was a person with one quarter African and three quarters European ancestry. Rutherford wishes to marry Aurore, but cannot because she is a slave and because of  her African ancestry. The two, of course marry in the end, but not in the State of Louisiana.

The novel does contain quite a lot of action and is surprisingly suspenseful at times. I was a little put off by Reid having the need to describe the flora and fauna of Louisiana in such detail. His foreign born, 19th Century readers may have found the descriptions interesting, but this 21st Century reader thought such descriptions slowed the pace.

In the beginning, I found Reid's "negro dialect" for the slaves off-putting as well. However, Reid also gave his uneducated, white, redneck characters a stereotypical drawl, so I was willing to give him a pass.

All in all, although obviously dated, I give The Quadroon a positive rating.