[Chewbaccus]

Wolf, I'm a big fan of Turtledove (and alt history in general) - In The Presence... is a standalone book, and a quality read. I've found that his standalone stuff is typically better than his sequential stuff, in my opinion: Turtledove's developed a tendency to recycle phrases and themes in his serial novels, and it tends to distract from the work.

Currently working on Brothers by David Talbot - a narrative history of the Kennedy administration focused on the tight-knit relationship between JFK, RFK, and their inner circle of advisors, and the tension between that circle and the military-bureaucratic establishment of the time. (CIA, Joint Chiefs, etc.) Think "Thirteen Days", spanned across the three years of the administration.

Very good so far - draws heavily from recently declassified documents, Congressional hearing testimonies, CIA internal histories, and direct interviews with the surviving participants of the time (MacNamara, Gore Vidal, Ted Kennedy, Walter Sheridan, Cynthia Helms [wife of de facto CIA Director Richard Helms], et al) The bibliography is around eight pages, front and back.