As part of the Smashwords July Sale ending today, Canadian backlist re-publisher Bev Editions is giving away a number of freebies, at least one of which I've read and can recommend:
Below the Peacock Fan: First Ladies of the Raj by Marian Fowler is a pretty decent quasi-academic mini-bibliography focusing on female relatives of prominent British Indian colonial officials. I read this from the library years ago and while it was a bit on the light reading side, found it entertaining and informative.
There's also at least one other free-with-coupon history backlist book among their offerings, and some pop-culture/sociological stuff as well, and they're also running sales on some of their other titles, including award-nominated mysteries.
Linkage to the lot
on their publisher page.