A sendup of both the tech industry and those obsessed with baking bread. Lois finds a whole new world with the starter and that's a good thing. Nice San Francisco atmospherics and a gentle sense of humor make this a good read. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC.

I absolutely loved this book. I smiled the entire time I read it. It was fun and quirky. I loved how much joy Lois felt when she realized how baking her bread made her feel and the sincerity of that happiness. The Lois Club made me laugh out loud several times and the cast of characters at the Marrow Fair definitely added so much to the story.

Honestly, I liked the beginning. Various office antics had me entertained, but then it lost my interest and I hate to admit it, but I didn't finish. I'm not even certain I made it halfway. Snoozefest.

I chose to read this book based off of my enjoyment of one of the authors previous books "Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore." This story felt to be in a similar vein around secret local societies, though focusing on baking instead. That may be one of the reasons I felt I didn't enjoy it as much as the parallels were a bit too close. But it still was a warm and light-hearted read. It definitely made me crave some fresh bread and want to watch The Great British Baking show.

A fascinating read - who thought that combining sourdough and the tech industry could result in such a cool novel!

Will definitely be re-reading and thoroughly recommend.

With thanks to NetGalley and the publisher.

Fascinating novel that you might forget is not nonfiction. Lois is a software engineer in California and is working too many hours and is on the edge of collapsing. Her neighbors who are moving gift her with a batch of sourdough and it slowly dawns on Lois that the sourdough is alive. More alive than she feels. The sourdough brings her friends, community and a feeling of longing. Foodies will love this books. My bookclub did.

I adored this book. It was absolutely charming and I never thought I could have feelings about a sourdough starter . . . but here we are.

I read Robin Sloan's previous book, and I liked it a lot so naturally, I was looking forward to reading Sourdough. I didn't know a lot about Sourdough (compared to the books in the previous novel) but have googled a bit since then, but it sounded fascinating.

It was a really nice read. The author clearly has a love for San Fransisco, it was nice to see him so enthusiastic on the topic. I recently saw a documentary on sourdough and apparently San Fransisco is the place to be when it comes to it.

I find myself still thinking about this book from time to time.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for providing me with a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!

I found this an interesting unique book. I am definitely planning on recommending it for my monthly adult book club. It would fit their interests. They love interesting characters that take a strange new path in their lives. This book fits that to a t. Lois is the type of character that can drive a character driven book. Thanks for the opportunity to read this novel.

I received a complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review.

Showing the wacky juxtaposition between the new and the classic, Sourdough follows a very treasured yeast mix from the tech world back to the farmers market, with all the artisanal hijinks in between. It's a sendup of the techie culture and it's alternating fetishizing and marginalizing of the analog world.

I loved this book so much, I'd like to go back in time and read it again for the first time.
The story, about a young computer programmer named Lois who learns to make bread from a mysterious starter, is a wonderful backdrop for perfect little moments of writing. A little fantastical, very funny, and yet also endearing. The first time she makes bread describes exactly how I feel when I bake bread. I'm definitely purchasing a copy of this to force-onto people.

Robin Sloan's books always make me smile. Therese Plummer did a fine job narrating though we were surprised by some pronunciations of common streets in San Francisco. This book is a wild journey and lots of fun. I laughed out loud and puzzled over the antics of the Sourdough. I would highly recommend this. I agree with the reviewer that said this book does for food what Mr Penumbra did for books! I look forward to anything new by Robin Sloan. His books are delightful.

I really enjoyed this book, especially the beginning I was absolutely hooked. Robin Sloan descriptions and detail is so intricate and passionate you may start googling bread-making classes after this read. I adore books where passions are sought after and pursued and this book fall into this category and then some. You are brought into a world of deep passion for all things food and then you are brought into a sector of a more niche place within the culinary world experimental cooking; using robots, or creating meals out of bugs. It was really fun to be brought into this world and I was hooked at the beginning....

I would give this 5 stars for sheer enjoyment, although I can't award more than four based on literary merit. Nevertheless, these days I have to say enjoyment, escape, and good will are very high on my list of prized qualities. Robin Sloan's previous book, Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour Bookstore, is one of my all-time favorites.

Much of this one is set on an abandoned Air Force base outside Oakland, and it's a great take on the bleeding edge of the Chez Panisse/locavore scene. It was a lovely way to end my reading for 2017.

I'm not going to lie, this was a bit odd so different that after reading a few pages of the Early Review copy, I noticed it on my library's upcoming audio list and put it on hold. Don't know about you, there are some books that are more palatable on audio and vice versa.

A computer coder for robots in the Bay Area is given the gift of her favorite restaurants sourdough starter when they close. (Over the years, I've had sourdough cultures. I also can code a bit and know about the about the crazy world that is Silicon Valley start-ups, so far, so good.)

It becomes a great stress reliever for her from the grind of work, learning from scratch about the amazing gift she was given in the crock. Cultures like sourdough are fascinating to me and I'm a foodie of sorts, so I'm still with the story.

Her bread gets good enough to try out for the various markets in the Bay Area and is accepted to one that she and others in contention have never heard about. OK, she'll give it a try.

This is where I start to lose it a bit. Given an odd plastic piece that in no way resembles a key, she takes a ferry over from San Francisco (The City, to the locals, just saying.) to the former Naval Base across the bay in Alameda. (Side Note: In the audio version, the reader mispronounces Alameda constantly, I checked because it was driving me nuts. You go through your life pronouncing a city one way, only to be thrown by a new way. Silly and stupid, but Google was my buddy.)

The base itself has an interesting history, starting as an airport in 1927 and slowly being transformed into a Naval Base in 1938. It officially closed in 1997 and has served as a museum, filming locations for car chases and since 2000, the city of Alameda has been trying to redevelop it into usable space, but there have been some major hang-ups, like it being deemed a superfund cleanup site, continuing groundwater contaminations, wildlife refuge, etc.

Anywho, sorry for the strange rabbit hole off there, but some of it does have relevance to the story, I swear!

Eventually, Lois finds where she is supposed to go on the massive old base and it is the old huge underground bunker that her "key" works on. What she finds there is an amazing group of ragtag foodies that instead of thinking outside of the box, don't even start with the box in the first place. Their goal is to mix technology and food in these underground cubbies that will eventually become an amazing new style of market like no other.

These people are passionate about their energy bites, cheeses, beers, cricket flour cookies, etc and I have to admire them, if not question the safety of their location and possible radioactivity concerns.
Lois talks her company into letting her borrow a refurbished robotic arm in order to program it to assist in the baking, especially to teach/program it to be able to break an egg without making a huge mess, no easy feat for most people, little own a robotic arm.

Honestly, it's a beautiful Cumbyaya idea that I love until she eventually learns that it may all have a darker side and purpose.

Funny, how I started this out saying it was odd and yet, obviously chewed, digested, and could relate to so much of it. Mea Culpa.

If you are into the Bay area, rising technology, really getting into the nitty-gritty of foods and aware that not everyone has the best ideas in mind, this was a wild adventure if you are open to it. It's been one of my most unique reads of the year so far, and that's saying something.

For the record, it's Ala-Me-Da, not Ala-May-Da, and I'm totally ready to fight over this.

Thanks NetGalley.

Oh noooo. I loved Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore. This was nothing like Mr. Penumbra's. Very disappointing. And I was waiting for the LOTR nod with all the mention of Lembas! Kept giving me flashes of Samwise Gamgee! It was a good story but it wasn't great. I felt more of a connection with Mr. Penumbra's because books. Less so with bread.

I really loved this book. It's a delightful read, with lovable characters and a great premise. The combination of nerdery and food was really fun, and small touches like the Lois Club were really cute. I felt great the whole time I was reading this novel, like it was the perfect balm to soothe my pained and irritated soul. I've downloaded the audiobook and look forward to listening to the story. I think it's better than Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore.

If you enjoyed the charm and quirkiness of Mr. Penumbra's Bookstore, you'll be happy to know that this aspect of Sloan's writing style is evident here. This was a heartwarming read that avoided falling into over-saccharine territory.

An overworked computer programmer in San Francisco has been primarily subsisting on a super efficient slurry. It saves time for her job perfecting robotic arms for kitchen application. One night she orders from a terrific soup and sourdough sandwich shop operated by brothers from some unidentified country. Due to visa problems the brothers must go home but they leave her with sourdough starter and teach her how to keep it alive. She is soon obsessed with baking bread.

A book about the joy of bread baking? I can't really relate. I also couldn't relate to computer programming, although that is probably less boring than watching a blob of yeast and flour. This book was clearly not for me so I abandoned it. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

Not Much Like "Penumbra", But Just As Interesting

Some writers can make boring topics interesting, and, unfortunately, some can make interesting subjects boring, but it takes a rare talent to make interesting topics even more interesting, and that's what you get here.

The premise is not promising. A thirty something computer programmer, Lois, moves to a new cutting edge job at a mega-tech facility in San Francisco and begins to feel vaguely unfulfilled. Then she meets two pleasantly eccentric brothers who bake a sourdough bread that becomes her daily ritual. The brothers leave the country and entrust our heroine with their starter culture. She starts baking bread. Is this going to become some sort of Eat, Pray, Bake? Nope.

Sloan does some fascinating things here. The plot, which I won't spoil, does some fine zigging and zagging. You will learn a good deal about the San Francisco food and farmer's market scenes. You will follow Lois through a number of digressions that, while cleverly and stylishly constructed, will seem entirely beside the point, until they're not. You'll even experience a bit of foodie magical realism that will be unexpectedly amusing and occasionally touching.

At some point early on in the book Lois pauses, reflects on her life to date and all of its recent shocks and detours, and asks herself -"Am I becoming interesting?". Just then you too realize that Sloan has created a character, finagled a plot, and added all sorts of colors in order to be really interesting and in order to suggest that being interesting is a noble goal. Or maybe the book is just about bread; but I don't think so.

In any event, the book is loaded with all of the signature insights, wry humor, throwaway lines, and striking observations that make Sloan fun to read. He offers you literally dozens of supporting characters that are built from just a few lines of description and a few bits of dialogue, but are memorable and engaging. There is warmth and good nature and a bit of mystery and a touch of romance. There is gentle, (and sometimes prickly), parody of start up culture - both tech startup and bread dough starter - and by gosh if it doesn't all work just right. A nice find.

(Please note that I received a free advance ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)