Looking to buy some new history books and these 4 caught my attention. I want to know your thoughts about them (I saw the last one at the DDR museum in Berlin).
[The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich: A History of Nazi Germany by William L. Shirer] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1451651686/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1444407693&sr=8-2π=SY200_QL40&keywords=The+rise+and&dpPl=1&dpID=41bF-0YMHSL&ref=plSrch)
[Ring of Steel: Germany and Austria-Hungary in World War I by Alexander Watson] (http://www.amazon.com/Ring-Steel-Germany-Austria-Hungary-World/dp/0465018726/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1436811579&sr=8-1&keywords=ring+of+steel)
[The Fall of the Ottomans: The Great War in the Middle East by Eugene Rogan] (http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/046502307X/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=0K7FEZSQ015WXEEZHREH)
[The GDR: A History of the worker and peasant state by Jens schöne] (http://www.amazon.de/The-GDR-History-Arbeiter-Bauernstaat/dp/3957230209)
Shirer's book was published in 1960, so even though it's was published closer to the fall of the 3rd Reich then more recent works 1960 was also in the middle of the Cold war so the author could hold some bias in that respect so I'd recommend Richard Evans's "Third Reich Trilogy" instead.
Evans's Trilogy was published between 2003 & 2008, the Trilogy includes; The Coming Of The Third Reich (2003) which describes the origins of the Nazi party within the context of the Weimar Republic and how Hitler seized power in 1933. The Third Reich in Power (2005) describes life in Nazi Germany from 1933 - 1939. The Third Reich At War describes how Germany went to war in '39 and how life changed accordingly for the public.
I will second /u/Subs-man 's reservations about Shirer. Although Shirer has a journalist's eye for detail and language, his portrayal of German history is sloppy and rather dated.
The Watson and Rogan books are quite good reads. Both are works written by academics and are for a general audience . As such they do not so much conduct original research, but rather synthesize the vast corpus of scholarship on the impact of the war upon East Central Europe and the Middle East.