A book I liked this year--which seemed to fall under the radar--was Navied Mahdavian's "This Country." Mahdavian has a funny, honest voice; he seems like a trustworthy narrator. In his twenties, he worked as a teacher in San Francisco, but he dreamed of drawing cartoons. You can't live in SF on a teacher's salary, anyway--so Mahdavian and his wife, a documentary filmmaker, moved to a plot of land in rural Idaho. I think Mahdavian understands a basic fact that remains mysterious to most of us: You get only one life. Now is the time to attempt a career in cartooning--and a move to No Man's Land. Mahdavian uses a sharp metaphor: He recalls driving into a skid, and losing control, and the image of the rudderless ship recurs whenever Mahdavian finds himself in a bizarre conversation. A new friend remembers his grandfather, who shot and murdered a neighbor for failing to monitor his sheep. ("Everyone knew the truth, and no one spoke up.") And: Mahdavian t...