Could anyone recommend any books about Turing's life and works?
1. Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges http://www.amazon.com/Alan-Turing-Enigma-Inspired-Imitation/...
Definitive and detailed biography.
2. Alan M. Turing by Sara Turing http://www.amazon.com/Alan-M-Turing-Centenary-Edition/dp/110...
Deeply personal biography of her dead son.
3. The Annotated Turing by Charles Petzold http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Turing-Through-Historic-Comp...
Turing's famous 1936 explained in detail.
As so much of Alan's posthumous fame is for cracking the naval enigma in WW2, I'd recommend starting out by first reading "The Code Book" by Simon Singh for general background.
Personally I find Alan's work on ACE the most fascinating. Sadly I can't really find much about it beyond Hodge's biography. Anyone got any good leads re ACE?
I already feel like I had an intimate look at his life from that book so not sure if the others would add anything to my life.
But if you are interested in the ins and out of Turin's life it's a very good reference.
I'd encourage you to go on with the book; it's a beautiful book. You can skip over the overly science-y parts I guess. The beauty of that book in my opinion is how the author didn't focus solely on his homosexuality or achievements but tried to show how his personality, including his sexual preferences, played a part in everything that he was able to achieve.