Wednesday Reading Meme

[osprey_archer]

What I've Just Finished Reading

Susan Elia MacNeal's Princess Elizabeth's Spy, which is billed as "A Maggie Hope Mystery" but is actually much more of a thriller and therefore not exactly to my taste. I suspect that mysteries and thrillers probably have about the same number of unlikely genre conventions, but for whatever reason I can skate happily through most mystery conventions, while most thriller conventions tend to torpedo my suspension of disbelief. (And the casualness of the body count in thrillers often bothers me.)

Princess Elizabeth's Spy has the added issue that the main plot focuses around the heroine's mission to protect Princess Elizabeth from evil Nazi schemes. Will Maggie save the princess from the Nazis???? Well, said princess grew up to become the queen of England, so...yes. Yes, I rather think Maggie will. It rather drains the story of tension.

I also finished Robert Conquest's The Great Terror. A quote that stuck out to me, in the chapter about Westerner's attitudes toward the Terror while it was happening: "not even high intelligence and a sensitive spirit are of any help once the facts of the situation are deduced from a political theory, rather than vice versa."

And for political theory perhaps substitute any overarching worldview, any strong inclination to say "Socialists/Christians/social justice bloggers should be better than that," and to believe that because they should be better, they are better than that, and therefore their cruelest acts must be somehow justified. Somehow. Because they have the correct beliefs, and surely the correct beliefs ought to lead to the correct actions.

What I'm Reading Now

Jane Mayer's The Dark Side, which I may not be able to get through, because reading about a political train wreck that occurred during my lifetime and warped the government, possibly permanently, is a bit like standing still to be repeatedly poked in the eye with a sharp stick. I'm sure it's good for me, but goddamn, it's not very pleasant.

What I Plan to Read Next

Maybe I should actually read Varlam Shalamov's Kolyma Tales? They've been waiting patiently for months now.

Comments

[evelyn-b.livejournal.com]

I'm curious about what you would say the dividing line is between mystery and thriller. I suspect that some of the book recommendations I've been getting from putative mystery fans may actually be thrillers, and that's why I can't get past the first chapter.

Will Maggie save the princess from the Nazis???? Well, said princess grew up to become the queen of England, so...yes. Yes, I rather think Maggie will.

YOU NEVER KNOW, though. What if it's AN ALTERNATE TIMELINE?? (I would read it) (maybe).

[osprey-archer.livejournal.com]

I think thrillers tend to have a higher body count (and are more likely to have the killings take place on stage, as it were, with the killer suitably shrouded, which always feels like cheating to me) and they tend to be less about whodunnit or why they done it, and more about stopping some imminent looming threat.

This is a non-exhaustive list; there are probably more differences.