Favourite genres

I love military history books, and historical military novels.
I also like some historical romances - Helen Susan Swift springs to mind as a light, but often thoughtful read.
Autobiographies and biographies of military men, particularly the lesser known are fascinating, and exploration memoirs of the 19th century.
I am looking for some books on the early colonial era in north america- non fiction - including the immediate prelude to the Revolutionary War, from a social rather than political point of view. Political commentaries are often too biased to be taken seriously.