MobileRead November 2017 Book Club Vote

[WT Sharpe]

November 2017 MobileRead Book Club Vote

Help us choose a book as the November 2017 eBook for the MobileRead Book Club. The poll will be open for 5 days. There will be no runoff vote unless the voting results a tie, in which case there will be a 3 day run-off poll. This is a visible poll: others can see how you voted. It is You may cast a vote for each book that appeals to you.

We will start the discussion thread for this book immediately after a winner is chosen. You may join the discussion at any time. Select from the following Official Choices with three nominations each:

• 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.

• One Summer: America, 1927 by Bill Bryson
Goodreads
Print Length: 528 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

In One Summer Bill Bryson, one of our greatest and most beloved nonfiction writers, transports readers on a journey back to one amazing season in American life.
The summer of 1927 began with one of the signature events of the twentieth century: on May 21, 1927, Charles Lindbergh became the first man to cross the Atlantic by plane nonstop, and when he landed in Le Bourget airfield near Paris, he ignited an explosion of worldwide rapture and instantly became the most famous person on the planet.

Meanwhile, the titanically talented Babe Ruth was beginning his assault on the home run record, which would culminate on September 30 with his sixtieth blast, one of the most resonant and durable records in sports history.

In between those dates a Queens housewife named Ruth Snyder and her corset-salesman lover garroted her husband, leading to a murder trial that became a huge tabloid sensation.

Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly sat atop a flagpole in Newark, New Jersey, for twelve days—a new record.

The American South was clobbered by unprecedented rain and by flooding of the Mississippi basin, a great human disaster, the relief efforts for which were guided by the uncannily able and insufferably pompous Herbert Hoover. Calvin Coolidge interrupted an already leisurely presidency for an even more relaxing three-month vacation in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

The gangster Al Capone tightened his grip on the illegal booze business through a gaudy and murderous reign of terror and municipal corruption.

The first true “talking picture,” Al Jolson’s The Jazz Singer, was filmed and forever changed the motion picture industry.

The four most powerful central bankers on earth met in secret session on a Long Island estate and made a fateful decision that virtually guaranteed a future crash and depression.

All this and much, much more transpired in that epochal summer of 1927, and Bill Bryson captures its outsized personalities, exciting events, and occasional just plain weirdness with his trademark vividness, eye for telling detail, and delicious humor. In that year America stepped out onto the world stage as the main event, and One Summer transforms it all into narrative nonfiction of the highest order.

• Wounded: A New History of the Western Front in World War I by Emily Mayhew
Goodreads Kindle Kobo
Print Length: 285 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

The number of soldiers wounded in World War I is, in itself, devastating: over 21 million military wounded, and nearly 10 million killed. On the battlefield, the injuries were shocking, unlike anything those in the medical field had ever witnessed. The bullets hit fast and hard, went deep, and took bits of dirty uniform and airborne soil particles in with them. Soldier after soldier came in with the most dreaded kinds of casualty: awful, deep, ragged wounds to their heads, faces, and abdomens. And yet the medical personnel faced with these unimaginable injuries adapted with amazing aptitude, thinking and reacting on their feet to save millions of lives.

In Wounded, Emily Mayhew tells the history of the Western Front from a new perspective: the medical network that arose seemingly overnight to help sick and injured soldiers. These men and women pulled injured troops from the hellscape of trench, shell crater, and no man's land, transported them to the rear, and treated them for everything from foot rot to poison gas, venereal disease to traumatic amputation from exploding shells. Drawing on hundreds of letters and diary entries, Mayhew allows listeners to peer over the shoulder of the stretcher bearer who jumped into a trench and tried unsuccessfully to get a tightly packed line of soldiers out of the way, only to find that they were all dead. She takes us into dugouts where rescue teams awoke to dirt thrown on their faces by scores of terrified moles, digging frantically to escape the earth-shaking shellfire. Mayhew moves her account along the route followed by wounded men, from stretcher to aid station, from jolting ambulance to crowded operating tent, from railway station to the ship home, exploring actual cases of casualties who recorded their experiences. Both comprehensive and intimate, this groundbreaking book captures an often neglected aspect of the soldier's world and a transformative moment in military and medical history.

• The Last Castle: The Epic Story of Love, Loss, and American Royalty in the Nation's Largest Home by Denise Kiernan
Goodreads | Overdrive
Print Length: 384 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

The fascinating true story behind the magnificent Gilded Age mansion Biltmore—the largest, grandest residence ever built in the United States.

The story of Biltmore spans World Wars, the Jazz Age, the Depression, and generations of the famous Vanderbilt family, and features a captivating cast of real-life characters including F. Scott Fitzgerald, Thomas Wolfe, Teddy Roosevelt, John Singer Sargent, James Whistler, Henry James, and Edith Wharton.

Orphaned at a young age, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser claimed lineage from one of New York’s best known families. She grew up in Newport and Paris, and her engagement and marriage to George Vanderbilt was one of the most watched events of Gilded Age society. But none of this prepared her to be mistress of Biltmore House.

Before their marriage, the wealthy and bookish Vanderbilt had dedicated his life to creating a spectacular European-style estate on 125,000 acres of North Carolina wilderness. He summoned the famous landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted to tame the grounds, collaborated with celebrated architect Richard Morris Hunt to build a 175,000-square-foot chateau, filled it with priceless art and antiques, and erected a charming village beyond the gates. Newlywed Edith was now mistress of an estate nearly three times the size of Washington, DC and benefactress of the village and surrounding rural area. When fortunes shifted and changing times threatened her family, her home, and her community, it was up to Edith to save Biltmore—and secure the future of the region and her husband’s legacy.

The Last Castle is the unique American story of how the largest house in America flourished, faltered, and ultimately endured to this day.

• The Soul of A New Machine by Tracy Kidder
Goodreads | Amazon US
Print Length: 297 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

Computers have changed since 1981, when Tracy Kidder memorably recorded the drama, comedy, and excitement of one companys efforts to bring a new microcomputer to market. What has not changed is the feverish pace of the high-tech industry, the go-for-broke approach to business that has caused so many computer companies to win big (or go belly up), and the cult of pursuing mind-bending technological innovations. The Soul of a New Machine is an essential chapter in the history of the machine that revolutionized the world in the twentieth century.

• A Brief History of Misogyny: The World's Oldest Prejudice by Jack Holland
Goodreads | Amazon US / Audible / Overdrive
Print Length: 338 pages

Spoiler:

From Goodreads:

In this compelling, powerful book, highly respected writer and commentator Jack Holland sets out to answer a daunting question: how do you explain the oppression and brutalization of half the world's population by the other half, throughout history?

The result takes the reader on an eye-opening journey through centuries, continents and civilizations as it looks at both historical and contemporary attitudes to women. Encompassing the Church, witch hunts, sexual theory, Nazism and pro-life campaigners, we arrive at today's developing world, where women are increasingly and disproportionately at risk because of radicalised religious belief, famine, war and disease. Well-informed and researched, highly readable and thought-provoking, this is no outmoded feminist polemic: it's a refreshingly straightforward investigation into an ancient, pervasive and enduring injustice. It deals with the fundamentals of human existence -- sex, love, violence -- that have shaped the lives of humans throughout history.

The answer? It's time to recognize that the treatment of women amounts to nothing less than an abuse of human rights on an unthinkable scale. A Brief History of Misogyny is an important and timely book that will make a long-lasting contribution to the efforts to improve those rights throughout the world.

[CRussel]

Not yet sure which ones I will vote for, but there are four I would certainly read if they get the nod. A good and varied selection.

[issybird]

Tom, I put purchase links in my nomination of Wounded; would you mind adding the links to the poll?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...1&postcount=45

[Dutchbook]

People, don't forget that Kobo currently has a -90% off coupon!

EDIT:
And the Kobo US link to The Last Castle
https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-last-castle-2

[CRussel]

couldn't get the 90% coupon to work (not a surprise, given how Kobo has been lately), but did get a 50% coupon to work for Malta.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

couldn't get the 90% coupon to work (not a surprise, given how Kobo has been lately), but did get a 50% coupon to work for Malta.

Malta is already in my library (and the Simon Vance narration ). So that one's easy!

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by issybird

Tom, I put purchase links in my nomination of Wounded; would you mind adding the links to the poll?

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...1&postcount=45

Sorry; I'm out of town until Sunday night and only have my phone, but you're welcome to stick them in. I had to borrow my niece's phone for a hotspot so I could do the poll on my iPad. I wouldn't feel right imposing on her again.

Sent from my SM-J700P using Tapatalk

[issybird]

Originally Posted by WT Sharpe

Sorry; I'm out of town until Sunday night and only have my phone, but you're welcome to stick them in. I had to borrow my niece's phone for a hotspot so I could do the poll on my iPad. I wouldn't feel right imposing on her again.

Sent from my SM-J700P using Tapatalk

Will do; didn't want to tread on your toes.

[WT Sharpe]

Originally Posted by issybird

Will do; didn't want to tread on your toes.

😊 😊 😊

Sent from my SM-J700P using Tapatalk

[CRussel]

Come on, folks, this is not looking promising. I'm seeing two books doing well that I know I won't read (and I strongly suspect others won't, regardless of the voting.) One is $12, over the price that many people will willingly pay, and another is 600 pages long. How about a bit of love for Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Machine, please. This is an excellent book, very reasonably priced, short enough for a monthly read, and it's an [i]good[/g] read. I know I devoured it when I first read it, and I'm actually looking forward to a chance to re-read it.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by CRussel

Come on, folks, this is not looking promising. I'm seeing two books doing well that I know I won't read (and I strongly suspect others won't, regardless of the voting.) One is $12, over the price that many people will willingly pay, and another is 600 pages long. How about a bit of love for Tracy Kidder's Soul of a New Machine, please. This is an excellent book, very reasonably priced, short enough for a monthly read, and it's an [i]good[/g] read. I know I devoured it when I first read it, and I'm actually looking forward to a chance to re-read it.

Of the top 3 books, Malta doesn't interest me, the other is a war book which I don't want to read and the other I will read.

For those who are voting for these 3 books, will you get them from Overdrive in time, will you read in time if you already have? Will you buy if you cannot get from Overdrive? Are you voting just for the sake of voting?

This is a serious issue if people are voting for the sake of voting. If you have voted, please respond to why you voted the way you did. I voted for what I will read should one of my votes is the winner.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by CRussel

and another is 600 pages long.

I assume this refers to The End. Realistically, a lot of those 596 pages are end matter - notes, sources, index. Amazon doesn't have "Look Inside" for this title so I can't check, but someone I follow on Goodreads cites 400 pages, which seems likely. So that's a third fewer pages right there!

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

I assume this refers to The End. Realistically, a lot of those 596 pages are end matter - notes, sources, index. Amazon doesn't have "Look Inside" for this title so I can't check, but someone I follow on Goodreads cites 400 pages, which seems likely. So that's a third fewer pages right there!

The problem is that it's a war book and I've recently finished watching the Ken Burns Vietnam War documentary. It's 10 hours long and after that, I'm not interested in reading about war.

[CRussel]

I'm not willing to read about war, with the exception of the Malta book. That's a bit of history I don't know, and might find interesting. I'm not willing to read The End under any circumstances, and even if 1/3 of the pages are end matter, that's still 400 pages too much. And while The Castle might be interesting, it's $12, and I haven't, so far, seen sufficient justification to spend that much, especially with alternatives available.

[Dutchbook]

I don't like the tone here.

"People that don't vote like me, are wrong" never does well

And what is wrong with a 600 page book?