Read 2 books this week reviews copied and pasted

A while back in another of these posts I asked for suggestions about East Germany and someone suggested The Collapse: The Accidental Opening of the Berlin Wall by Mary Elise Sarotte which I've got round to reading and it was good.

>4/5

>Pretty good. Not very long, 180 pages of main text and another 100 pages for the notes and sources. The first chapter sets out the longer term context and history of the wall and then the book basically covers all of 1989 and the process that led to the end of the Berlin Wall. The book leans heavily and convincingly into the fall of the Berlin Wall. being a total accident, with a lot of focus on the things that seem trivial and the various cockups by the GDR leadership. Has a good mix of points of view, the leadership, foreign journalists, activists etc. Personally I enjoyed the bits about the Polituburo and the leadership with the high level politics the most.

I've just now finished The Habsburgs: The Rise and Fall of a World Power, by Martyn Rady

>4.25/5

>Overall pretty good. 330 pages plus another 70 for sources. First book I've read specifically about the Habsburgs so I can't really compare it to anything else. Goes all the way from the medieval era to the end of WWI. The writing is good and accessible. Good mix of info both personal to the Habsburg's lives as well as their policy and territory. It also has a few chapters on secondary topics like freemasonry in Habsburg lands or scientific exploration. It took me a while to enjoy the book, it didn't do anything wrong but maybe I just wasn't as interested in the medieval stuff or the 16th century. But once I got to the Thirty Years War I thought it got a lot more enjoyable. It also has a good further reading list, which is divided by chapter, so if you really want to learn a lot about the Habsburgs this is probably a good place to start.

Next up will be Fracture: Life and Culture in the West 1918-1938, by Phillip Blom.