As I mentioned in one of my goal posts, I want to make this readathon a priority. So far, so good. I had this first gym planned out and the time set aside to plough through the three Doctor Who comic collections I chose for most of the prompts.
Along with the Doctor Who comic collections, I read one audiobook which I started a little early. Technically, these gyms function as 24 hour readathons from midnight to midnight BST. Jade always says that we can adjust the time zones if we need to so that’s what I did. I started the audiobook around 4pm EST and managed to finish the comic collection before 2pm, well within the 24 hours. On to the reviews.
This nonfiction book tells the story of debt peonage in the US South post Civil War by looking at an infamous but not well known case where a white farm owner was convicted of the deaths of more than 10 of his “workers” whose bodies – some but not all – had been discovered in the river due to unusually low water levels. Much of the narrative focuses on the discover of the bodies, the investigation carried out by
agents of the organization that later became the FBI, and the trial of the reprehensible perpetrator of these murders. Woven throughout the narrative, the author also explores how this peonage system continued chattel slavery in an “acceptable” form as well as its horrific effects. This is a hard read but definitely necessary.
While none of these collections I have ever read, including these three, have ever been favorites, I want to continue reading them and diving back into the Doctor Who universe. The collections (1st and 3rd above) that work the best for me are the ones that read far more like an episode of the show rather than as a comic book installment, especially, for example, the whole weird aliens masking as Egyptian gods in the 11th doctor collections.