Travel guides
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania (Lonely Planet) — the standard backpacker guide, updated regularly. Covers all three Baltic states in one volume with solid practical information.
The Bradt Guide to Estonia by Neil Taylor — more focused and literary than Lonely Planet, good for independent travellers who want more context alongside the listings.
History
The Baltic Revolution: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and the Path to Independence by Anatol Lieven (1993) — still the best single-volume account of how the three states broke free from the Soviet Union. Lieven was a journalist on the ground during the independence movements.
War in the Woods: Estonia's Struggle for Survival 1944–56 by Mart Laar — the former Estonian prime minister tells the story of the Forest Brothers, the guerrilla fighters who resisted Soviet occupation for more than a decade after World War II.
The Baltic States: The Years of Independence 1917–1940 by Georg von Rauch — dense but thorough history of the interwar independence period.
Culture and literature
The Czar's Madman by Jaan Kross — the most celebrated Estonian novel in translation, set in 19th-century czarist Estonia. Kross was the country's foremost novelist and was repeatedly nominated for the Nobel Prize.
Treading Air by Jaan Kaplinski — poetry by one of Estonia's most important contemporary poets, with a strong sense of landscape and identity.