A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson (1998). Bryson's account of attempting to hike the Appalachian Trail passes through Hanover, and his description of the trail culture — the obsessive gear talk, the thru-hiker camaraderie, the particular madness of the enterprise — is both funny and, eventually, moving. A good read before watching the hikers come through town.
Dartmouth Undying: A Story of Athletics by James Wright (2014). The former Dartmouth president's account of the college's athletic tradition and the debates around it. More interesting than it sounds — Wright writes well, and the book opens up questions about what a college town like Hanover is actually for.
The Stranger in the Woods by Michael Finkel (2017). Not set in Hanover, but in the same New England landscape — the story of Christopher Knight, who lived alone in the Maine woods for 27 years. It captures something about the pull of the region's forests and the people who take the back-to-nature impulse to its logical extreme.
Abenaki Dawnland Stories collected by Joseph Bruchac. Bruchac, an Abenaki author from upstate New York, has collected and retold the traditional stories of the peoples who lived throughout the Connecticut River Valley long before Dartmouth existed. A corrective to the college-town view of the region's history.