I mentioned before how much I've been enjoying these Extra History Youtube videos, and their series on Catherine the Great has also been excellent.

My only previous encounter with the story of Catherine the Great had been in The Great Upheaval by Jay Winik.

Many of the same story beats are covered in Jay Winik's book, but the emphasis is quite different.  Writing during the Bush years, Jay Winik focuses much of his story on the problems of a Western super-power invading an Islamic country.
The folks at Extra History pretty much ignore that angle entirely, and talk the Russian-Ottoman War entirely in terms of the balance of power in Europe.

Jay Winik also spends a lot of time talking about Catherine the Great's involvement in the American Revolution (W).  (His central thesis is that the politics of America, France, and Russia were all interconnected during the years 1788--1800.)  Extra History also ignore that angle.

Other Notes
For most of my history education, I had been taught that Hitler invaded Poland just because Hitler was a jerk.

It wasn't until relatively recently that I found out that there was a historical reason why Hitler wanted Poland--historically East Prussia had extended into Poland, and there was a German diaspora trapped in Poland.  (If memory serves, I learned this tidbit from The World At War. )
This means that the events at the end of this story (in which Fredrick the Great extends Prussia into Poland) are later going to be a direct cause of World War II.