Books about Costa Rica

Discover GEEO’s recommended books to read before you travel to Costa Rica. Our book club is a way for travelers to learn through literature about the places they’ll be visiting.

These are some of our favorites about Costa Rica, so if you’re heading there, take a look (the GEEO book club is not a required element of our programs, just a bit of added fun)! We hope you will enjoy the books we have selected and they will enhance your experience.

You should be able to find most of our selections through the links below and in your local library system as well. Do you have any feedback on our selections or suggestions for additions? Contact us and let us know!

Recommended books to read before traveling to Costa Rica:

Fiction:

• Costa Rica: A Traveler’s Literary Companion by various Costa Rican authors (short stories) (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• Local Legends of Costa Rica: Exploring Costa Rica Through Folklore by Prateek Agrawal (Bookshop.org | Amazon)

Non-Fiction:

• Monkeys Are Made of Chocolate: Exotic and Unseen Costa Rica by Jack Ewing (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• Where Tapirs and Jaguars Once Roamed: Ever-Evolving Costa Rica by Jack Ewing (Bookshop.org | Amazon)

For those looking for more suggestions, here are some other books you may want to consider:

• Tropical Nature: Life and Death in the Rain Forests of Central and South America by Adrian Forsyth (not specific to Costa Rica but a great introduction to tropical ecology) (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• The Green Republic: A Conservation History of Costa Rica by Sterling Evans (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• The Green Phoenix: Restoring the Tropical Forests of Guanacaste, Costa Rica by William Allen (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• Bananas: How the United Fruit Company Shaped the World by Peter Chapman (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• What Happen: A Folk-History of Costa Rica’s Talamanca Coast by Paula Palmer ( Amazon)
• The Birds of Costa Rica: A Field Guide by Richard Garrigues (Bookshop.org | Amazon)
• The Scent of Jade by Dee DeTarsio (Amazon)
• Married To A Legend, “Don Pepe” by Henrietta Boggs (MacGuire) (Bookshop.org | Amazon)

GEEO utilizes both Bookshop.org and Amazon Associates links for the above-suggested books. If you purchase a book through one of the links above, you’re supporting us as a nonprofit and helping more teachers travel through GEEO!