William Dalrymple's books are great reads. Makes reading history enjoyable. Highly recommend all his books, particularly his most recent 'The Golden Road'
Reading that one now. I finished The Anarchy before that and it was a great intro to the 18th century and how it made the ground fertile for upcoming colonial period.
I read it and it changed my view of the colonisation of India, the way the book portrayed it the place was basically a slaughterhouse until the Pax Britannica was imposed. I'm not saying the British were perfect but it seems a lot better than being raped or hacked to pieces depending on your gender by the army of the despot in the state next to yours at a moment's notice.