By happy coincidence, shortly after my rebuttal to Ben Kunkel and his suggestion that nobody does Thoreauvian memoir anymore, I was scavenging the book bins at one of my clients' office and came upon a copy of John Daniel's Rogue River Journal, a memoir of a winter spent alone in a rural Oregon cabin and "[the] search for a coherent place to stand on the earth." Admittedly, I haven't gotten too far into it—just what I could fit into the subway home—but it's got a strong opening, and beyond my recommendation, it's got a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award. Go ahead, give it a try!