The Two Best-Selling Books Based in Idaho are Inspiring

Idaho has been the subject of quite a few great books. A lot of globally recognized authors hail from the gem state. Some, like many Idaho residents, realized how amazing it is and moved here, others were born here and have since moved on. Check out some impressive authors who are from Idaho or live in Idaho.

A website called cheapism does research surveys and data analysis studies, recently one highlighted the top selling book that is based in each state. Idaho's was hugely successful and widely recognized. It quickly became a New York Times bestseller and eventually went on to become an International best seller.

The book is set in rural Idaho and is called “Educated” by Tara Westover. The cheapism description says, "Tara Westover tells the story of her upbringing in Buck’s Peak, a mountainous region where she fights to leave her survivalist Mormon family and the sheltered life she knew to attend college and receive a formal education. Westover returns to her family’s settlement in Idaho multiple times throughout the book even after she escapes, eventually realizing that she no longer feels at home there."

Amazon's gives information about the author making this even more interesting, "She spent her days working in her father's junkyard or stewing herbs for her mother, a self-taught herbalist and midwife. She was seventeen the first time she set foot in a classroom, and after that first taste, she pursued learning for a decade. She graduated magna cum laude from Brigham Young University in 2008 and was subsequently awarded a Gates Cambridge Scholarship, earned an MPhil from Trinity College, Cambridge in 2009, and in 2010 was a visiting fellow at Harvard University, returned to Cambridge, where she was awarded a PhD in history in 2014."

It's safe to say that Tara has been through a lot and is an impressively determined woman. Now onto an impressively determined Idaho man.

There is another book that came in a close second and is a totally different kind of read and is also based in Idaho.  “Indian Creek Chronicles: A Winter Alone in the Wilderness,” by Peter Fromm is an adventure. Amazon says, "So begins Pete Fromm's seven winter months alone in a tent in the Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness guarding salmon eggs. Brutal cold, isolation, and fearful risks balance against the satisfaction of living a unique existence in modern America. This award-winning narrative is a gripping story of adventure, a rousing tale of self-sufficiency, and modern-day Walden."

The Selway-Bitterroot Wilderness, where the book is based is massive. Wikipedia says,  "The Selway–Bitterroot Wilderness spans the Bitterroot Mountain Range, on the border between Idaho and Montana, and covers parts of Bitterroot National Forest, Clearwater National Forest, Lolo National Forest, and the Nez Perce National Forest. The Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness Area is immediately to its south, separated from it only by a dirt road (the Magruder Corridor). Together with adjoining public land, the two wilderness areas form a five million-acre (20,000 km²) wild region."