A Year Right Here: Adventures with Food and Family in the Great Nearby

Armed with "The Here List" and a Type-A personality, Seattle-based writer and cookbook author Jess Thomson sets out to spend a year exploring the food of the Pacific Northwest with her family. Planning to revel in the culinary riches of the region and hoping to break her son, Graham, of his childhood pickiness, the adventures into the great nearby include building a backyard chicken coop, truffle hunting in Oregon, and razor clamming on the Washington coast. Her plans to spend "a year right here" are complicated by efforts to help Graham overcome some of the mobility limitations of cerebral palsy, and thwarted further by her own limitations that come to the fore when she attempts the "Gourmet Century," a hilly one-hundred-kilometer bike ride with gourmet food stops along the way.

With touching, funny, sometimes devastating stories that we all can relate to, Jess pulls the reader in as she abandons "The Here List" and learns that letting go can be just as important as holding on.

"Expertly weaving the trials and travails of daily life ― one filled with alternating bouts of triumph and struggle ― with her yearlong exploration of the Pacific Northwest's edible gems, Thomson invites the reader into her imperfect, thoroughly genuine world. Her writing is never indulgent, never treacly, always honest. She makes the quotidian both remarkable and universal, garnishing each beautifully-crafted phrase with a dose of unsentimental realism." Cheryl Sternman Rule, author of Yogurt Culture and Ripe

"A book about parenting, food, and letting go, Jess Thomson's writing is full of emotion, wit and truth. This book strikes me to the core as I see myself reflected in the incongruence and beauty of daily life and our obsession with food and cooking." Aran Goyoaga, author of Small Plates & Sweet Treats: My Family's Journey to Gluten-Free Cooking and creator of Cannelle et Vanille

"A Year Right Here weaves together sharp observation, emotional candor, and strong characterization. In telling the story of her year at home, Jess Thomson illuminates our corner of the world." Claire Dederer, author of Poser: My Life in Twenty-Three Yoga Poses

"Jess is a smart, funny, straight-shooting writer with a great sense for food, and her A Year Right Here is no exception." Molly Wizenberg, author of A Homemade Life and Delancey

Jess Thomson is a freelance writer and the author of Dishing Up Washington, Pike Place Market Recipes, and Top Pot Hand-Forged Doughnuts; and coauthor of A Boat, a Whale, and a Walrus.

Hannah Viano is an artist and illustrator living in Seattle who strives to mix natural history and art together in accessible ways, through public art projects, education, and site-specific installations.