#and then the love interest: the kgb man with a wife and 4 kids he dearly loves but who conveniently get written off at the end

[aroacehanzawa]

The Half Life of Valery K by Natasha Pulley would be so good if it was good

[missmudpie]

Honesty Hour...1) How's the Steve fic going??? (of course I had to ask) 2) I liked this question so, which book have you read that you would never read again, but also, which book have you read that you WOULD read again? 3) I feel obligated to ask what your favorite AoS episodes are, but you might want to wait until after you do a rewatch. On the other hand, doing it now might help you narrow it down since the really good ones will stick out. 4) Favorite tv character of all time?

1) The Steve fic is stuck on page 28 and 8854 words because Steve needs to have a conversation in which he realizes/explains/comes to terms with why he left the Leftover Avengers and STEVE IS NOT COOPERATING.  Part of the problem is trying to figure out how much the other character knows about what happened.  Like, Steve references Thanos in his group session, so it seems people/the broader public knows the name and what happened in Wakanda.  Likewise, Bucky is identified as Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier in CA:CW, so it seems like an adult who follows the news would know who Bucky is - right?  And in Spiderman: Far From Home, the teenagers make a remembrance video for Tony Stark, among others, so his death is well-known, although it’s unclear if the broader public knows HOW he died.  There’s also the question of how does Steve relate his guilt over being unable to bring back Natasha without having to explain what the hell Infinity Stones are and how Time Travel Actually Exists.  I’ll get it done, though, I promise!

2) I was trying to think of what book I just absolutely hated.  I keep going back to A Separate Peace, which I just loathed in high school and can’t contemplate ever reading again.  

Recently, my problem has been books that just left me feeling disappointed.  For example, a few years ago I read We Were the Lucky Ones, which is about a Jewish family with five grown kids in Poland during WWII.  It’s a true story, the descendant of one of the survivors wrote it, and they all survived and eventually emigrated and reunited in Brazil.  Sounds like it should be amazing, right?  But it was just SO disappointing.  It skipped around in time and left out large chunks of people’s lives.  Like, you leave one sibling in 1941, and then suddenly it’s fall 1942, he’s got a wife and infant, and he’s in the USSR after being arrested by the NKVD (precursor to the KGB).  Like, What?  How?  Why?  Don’t know.  I ended up skimming the end to see how they all survived.  Another is The Librarian of Auschwitz, which has tonal problems, but that’s in large part because I think it’s a poor translation from the original.  

Oh, and Lilac Girls, which everyone loves but I just couldn’t properly connect with the characters.  That one bills itself to be about an American socialite, Caroline Ferriday, who helps save the “Rabbits” - Polish (mostly non-Jewish) prisoners held in Ravensbrück (the only only-womens’ camp the Nazis ran) who were savagely experimented on by the Nazis.  Like, they would purposefully wound them in the leg, then stuff the wound with dirt and sawdust and gangrene, wrap it up, and then see what happened.  Many were horribly maimed.  And that part of the story, which follows a Polish teen, is really good.  But you go from that to Caroline lamenting that the man she’s fallen for has a secret wife in France and like - these problems are not on the same level!  Also, the third character is a female Nazi doctor, and I think she gets a more empathetic treatment than she deserves.  Also, the “saving” is more “raised money after the war so these women could come to the US for surgery,” which is noble, don’t get me wrong, but not exactly the rescue mission that was advertised.

Basically, I need to stop reading WWII/Holocaust books and write my own.  Which I’m currently researching.

As for books I return to, I try to read To Kill a Mockingbird once a year or so.  I love it.  I always find something new each time I read it.  I bought Juniper, by Monica Furlong, at my sixth grade book fair and still love it.  It’s about a young girl in post-Arthur Cornwall who trains to be essentially a sorceress (the book calls her a doran).  Beautifully written.  Another fave: The Martian.

3) I’ll put these in a reply/reblog to your post.  I need to do a rewatch, but I went through the wikipedia page and tried to remember which ones I liked.  I’m interested to see if we pick the same ones!  

4) I thought about this, I really did, but I knew the answer immediately.  It’s Walter “Radar” O’Reilly from MASH.  I love that show, and I love all the characters, especially Hawkeye.  But Radar is something special - sweet, kind, naive, smart.  He is the embodiment of all the boys that go to war.  I love him and will protect him.  

Thanks for these, they were fun!