Recommended Idaho Books

A selection of Idaho Books recommended by Idaho Librarians

• Anderson, Kirk. Idaho Discovered. Ketchum, Idaho: Stoecklein Publishing, 2000.
• Attebery, Louie W., editor. Idaho Folklife: homesteads to headstones. Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press; Boise, Idaho: Idaho State Historical Society, 1985.
• Axtell, Horace. A Little Bit of Wisdom: Conversations with a Nez Perce Elder. Lewiston, Idaho: Confluence Press, 1997.
• Bird, Annie Laurie. My Home Town. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1968.
• Bjornstad, Bruce. On the Trail of the Ice Age Floods: a geological field guide to the mid-Columbia basin. Sandpoint, Idaho: Keokee Books, 2006.
• Bly, Steve. Idaho: wild and beautiful. Helena, Montana: Farcountry Press, 2000.
• Carlson, Ron. Five Skies. New York: Viking, 2007.
• Conley, Cort. Idaho For the Curious: A Guide. Cambridge, Idaho: Backeddy Books, 1982.
• Conley, Cort. Idaho Loners: Hermits, solitaries, and individualists. Cambridge, Idaho: Backeddy Books, 1994.
• Fiege, Mark. Irrigated Eden: the making of an agricultural landscape in the American west. Seattle, Washington: University of Washington Press, 1999.
• Fisher, Ron; and Charles R. Whitlock. Beyond the Rockies: a narrative history of Idaho. Coeur d’Alene, Idaho: Alpha Omega, 1989.
• Freeman-Toole, T. Louise. Standing Up to the Rock. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 2001.
• Gruber, William. On All Sides Nowhere: Building a Life in Rural Idaho. Boston, Massachusetts: Houghton Mifflin Co., 2002.
• Hamilton, Ladd. Snowbound. Pullman, Washington: Washington State University Press, 1997.
• Hanley, Mike. Owyhee Trails: The west’s forgotten corner. Caldwell, Idaho: Caxton Printers, 1973.
• Harris, Jana. We Never Speak of It: Idaho-Wyoming poems, 1889-90. Princeton, New Jersey: Ontario Review Press, 2003.
• Hilldorfer, Joseph; and Robert Dugoni. The Cyanide Canary. New York: Free Press, 2004.
• Hunt, Linda Lawrence. Bold Spirit: Helga Estby’s forgotten walk across Victorian America. Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Press, 2003.
• Husted, Bette Lynch. Above the Clearwater: living on stolen land. Corvallis: Oregon State University Press, 2004.
• Hyde, Gene. From Hell to Heaven: death-related mining accidents in north Idaho. Coeur d’Alene, Idaho: Museum of North Idaho, 2003.
• Idaho’s Highway History 1863-1975. Boise, Idaho: Idaho Transportation Department, 1985.
• Kirk, John Ohara. Idaho 100: stories from Idaho century citizens. Helena, Montana: Falcon Press, 1989.
• Link, Paul Karl; and E. Chilton Phoenix. Rocks, Rails, and Trails. Pocatello, Idaho: Idaho Museum of Natural History, 1996, 2nd ed.
• Lisk, Mark W. Idaho Impressions. Portland, Oregon: Graphic Arts Center Pub., 1997.
• Lukas, J. Anthony. Big Trouble: a murder in a small western town sets off a struggle for the soul of America. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
• Morgan, Clay; and Steve Mitchell. Idaho Unbound: a scrapbook and guide. Ketchum, Idaho: West Bound Books, 1995.
• Mourning Dove. Mourning Dove: a Salishan autobiography. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press, 1990.
• Olsen, Gregg. The Deep Dark: disaster and redemption in America’s richest silver mine. New York: Crown Publishers, 2005.
• Peavey, Diane Josephy. Bitterbrush Country: Living on the Edge of the Land. Golden, Colorado: Fulcrum Publishing, 2001.
• Prather, Timothy S. Idaho’s Noxious Weeds. Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho, 2008.
• Rember, John. Traplines: coming home to Sawtooth Valley. New York, N.Y.: Pantheon Books, 2003.
• Rodman, Paul, editor. A Victorian Gentlewoman in the Far West: The Reminiscences of Mary Hallock Foote. San Marino, California: Huntington Library, 1972.
• Shallat, Todd, editor. Snake: the plain and its people. Boise, Idaho: Boise State University, 1994.
• Stegner, Wallace. Angle of Repose. Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1971.
• Studebaker, William; and Rick Ardinger, editors. Where the Morning Light’s Still Blue: Personal Essays about Idaho. Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho Press, 1994.
• Swetnam, Susan. Home Mountains: Reflections from a Western Middle Age. Pullman, Washington: Washington State University Press, 2000.
• Taylor, Glen H. The Way it was with Me. Secaucus, New Jersey: L. Stuart, 1979.
• Welch, Julia Conway. Gold Town to Ghost Town: the Story of Silver City, Idaho. Moscow, Idaho: University Press of Idaho, 1982.
• Westover, Tara. Educated. New York, N.Y.: Random House, 2018.
• Whiting, Henry. At Nature’s Edge: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Artist Studio. Salt Lake City, Utah: University of Utah Press, 2007.

2012. Updated February 19, 2019.