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November 2017 Mobile Read Book Club Special Run-Off Vote

Since this month's vote resulted in a tie, we are having a Special Run-Off Vote between the two leading candidates. I will not vote in this poll unless my vote is needed to break a tie. This poll will be open for 3 days, and all MobileRead members are invited to participate. This is a visible, multiple-choice poll.

Select from the following Two Choices:

• The End: The Defiance and Destruction of Hitler's Germany, 1944-1945 by Ian Kershaw
Goodreads | Amazon US / Kobo
Print Length: 596 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

From the preeminent Hitler biographer, a fascinating and original exploration of how the Third Reich was willing and able to fight to the bitter end of World War II

Countless books have been written about why Nazi Germany lost the Second World War, yet remarkably little attention has been paid to the equally vital questions of how and why the Third Reich did not surrender until Germany had been left in ruins and almost completely occupied. Drawing on prodigious new research, Ian Kershaw, an award-winning historian and the author of Fateful Choices, explores these fascinating questions in a gripping and focused narrative that begins with the failed bomb plot in July 1944 and ends with the death of Adolf Hitler and the German capitulation in 1945. The End paints a harrowing yet enthralling portrait of the Third Reich in its last desperate gasps.

• The Great Siege: Malta 1565 by Ernle Bradford
Goodreads | Amazon UK / Amazon US / Kobo US
Print Length: 262 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

A thrilling, cinematic account of the siege of Malta as it's never been told before.

Suleiman the Magnificent, the most powerful ruler in the world, was determined to conquer Europe. Only one thing stood in his way: a dot of an island in the Mediterranean called Malta, occupied by the Knights of St. John, the cream of the warriors of the Holy Roman Empire. A clash of civilizations the likes of which had not been seen since Persia invaded Greece was shaping up. Determined to capture Malta and use its port to launch operations against Europe, Suleiman sent an armada and an overwhelming army. A few thousand defenders in Fort St. Elmo fought to the last man, enduring cruel hardships. When they captured the fort, the Turks took no prisoners and mutilated the defenders’ bodies. Grand Master La Vallette of the Knights reciprocated by decapitating his Turkish prisoners and using their heads to cannonade the enemy. Then the battle for Malta began in earnest: no quarter asked, none given.

The Great Siege recalls a clash of civilizations, the likes of which had not been seen since the time of Alexander the Great. This detailed and accessible narrative will delight readers of history as well as fans of films such as Braveheart and Ben Hur.