Coming into the Country by John McPhee. The 1976 book of long-form essays remains the best single piece of writing about Alaska — the bush plane sections in particular give you a feel for what was lost when the oil money came in. The sections on Anchorage itself are short but withering.
The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey. A magical-realist novel set in 1920s Alaska by a Palmer author, drawing on Russian folktale. Captures the homestead culture that built much of South Central.
Two in the Far North by Margaret Murie. Murie spent her childhood in Fairbanks and her later life advocating for what became the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The book is an early Alaska memoir written with real grace.
Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer. The story of Chris McCandless, who hitch-hiked through Anchorage on his way to die in an abandoned bus on the Stampede Trail outside Healy. Read it before driving the Parks Highway north.
A Land Gone Lonesome by Dan O'Neill. Quieter and less famous than McPhee, but a beautiful book about the people still living on the Yukon River — small Alaska that the tourist trail does not reach.