On citing books as references in papers
You can and you should. 

Sure, peer-review papers are preferred over regular (not peer-reviewed books) but if the information you want to cite only is written down in a book (peer reviewed or not) rather than in a research paper, of course you should reference to the former.

Technically, you can refer to whatever you want (a painting, a tv show, a private discussion with a friend of yours or The Journal of Ghosts and Humbug). However, if you want to write a believable paper, you should strive towards citing as trusted and/or high quality sources as possible.