You know that feeling when you read two really good books in a row? After finishing what was an excellent book, I started reading Sourdough and found myself again in an amazing novel.

The main character of Sourdough is Lois Clary. Lois works for a tech company called General Dexterity in San Francisco. She literally eats and sleeps there most days. Barely having time to eat, they slurp something from a tube.

One night, Lois decides to call a local restaurant for take out. She orders a spicy soup and meets one of the owners (a pair of brothers) as he delivers her food. He has an accent she can’t quite place, but the soup is amazing. It feeds not just her stomach, but her soul. She orders it so much, they nickname her “Number One Eater.”

When the brothers are forced to leave the US, they give her a gift crock of sourdough starter. Lois begins to bake bread. Not just any bread, but a special sourdough bread.

From there, Lois’s like takes a completely different turn. The rest of the story is told in part from Lois and in part from the brother’s emails.

This is the story of relationships, goals, determination. It’s brilliant and quirky. I loved it every bit as much as his other book, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.

I received an ARC of the book.

Sourdough

by Robin Sloan

When everyone says what foods they’d give up if they were forced to, is your response, “But not bread; I could never give up carbs”? Do you find the smell of fresh-baked bread intoxicating and the idea of marrying a baker dangerous? Also, do you kinda believe in magic though you might not admit it when the lights are on? Or did you read Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Bookstore and think it was an extra stroke of genius to have a book that actually glows in the dark? (Did you know that is glows in the dark? You can go try it out; I’ll wait.)

If any of this applies to you, then you are going to want a full helping of Robin Sloan’s newest novel, Sourdough. If the holy loaf on the cover isn’t enticement enough, you’ll fall quickly for the quirky intelligent protagonist, Lois, a recent transplant to the west coast who lives off of nutritive gel and attends meetings of a club of women who share her name. An overworked engineer, she has no time for proper food. One day, a mysterious take-out menu slips under her door and before she knows it, she is eating their “Spicy Spicy” — really their only menu option — morning, noon and night, and the new food not only satisfies her beleaguered belly, but also changes her entire state of being.

Then, abruptly, the brothers who run the takeout shop get deported, but not before leaving her with the magical and fickle secret sourdough starter that has been in their family forever. So begins Lois’ decent into the world of bread ovens, competitive San Francisco farmers markets and underground genetic food modification. Not to mention an “it’s complicated” relationship with a yeast that is somehow — possibly scientifically, possible magically — very alive.

It’s warm and well-constructed, buoyant and satisfying - and just the right size. Just how I like my sourdough. Oh, and the book is pretty tasty too.



*B3 received a Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Oh what a wonderful, funny, insightful, delightful and page turning read this book by Robin Sloan was! I had read Mr. Penumbra’s 24 hour bookstore and had always hoped that it had found a wide audience. This book is even better!

Our main character Lois has done everything right. She got a good degree from college, did a couple of summers of internships and was immediately offered a job where she lived in Michigan. Her father was a database worker for a large company and had surrounded Lois with computers since toddlerhood. Lois took her first job working with motor control software, it was very controlled and as she stated “had the feeling of laying bricks”. When she is recruited by a new company in San Francisco, General Dexterity, she decided it was time to leave the security of her job and family behind. They offered her a myriad of bonuses including free food and a salary that was more than both of her parents made in a year.

Once working for General Dexterity she was shocked to find that the programmers here worked Saturdays, evenings, even sometimes sleeping at the office. She got into the work but it was dragging her down, physically and emotionally.

Into her life comes the “Clement Street Soup and Sourdough” restaurant which delivers to her apartment. She hates to cook and finds that she is ordering the delicious “spicy” soup and sourdough bread almost daily. She made friends with the owners, Beoreg and Chaiman, brothers working through their kitchen apartment. Lois felt that the food had healing powers, she felt so good, her stomach unclenched from the day’s work and she slept.

There is so much story that follows this opening. The brothers must leave the US and entrust the “starter” for their sourdough to Lois with instructions how to feed it and keep it alive, they keep in touch via e mail. Lois becomes obsessed with the bread, making it in the wee hours of the night and even building a brick stove in the backyard. After winning her friends over with the bread she is asked by some people to sell her bread, make it in larger quantities and perhaps this can become her job?

Then she is approached by someone to join a sort of underground “futuristic” market where people were making and growing things in unique ways. They ultimately want Lois to make the bread using the robotic arm, because that would be very “unique”. Eventually she takes the job, then has the market purchase a used robotic arm from her past employer and she is on her way to producing larger loaves and in large quantities. But something is wrong, she can’t pinpoint what it is but the starter just isn’t working in the same way. It no longer sings while it is rising, no longer produces the same “faces” on the bread that it did before.

What happens next is for you to find out. I hope I haven’t divulged too much but there is lots to love, laugh about and reflect on. Pick up this ingenious book from Robin Sloan and you will have a delightful read! I received an ARC of this book through the publisher and NetGalley.

Will also post to Amazon upon publication

Posted to amazon on 9/11/17

I haven't read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore (from which you've likely heard of Sloan) yet, but I can guarantee you, I will now!

When Macmillan offered Sourdough for early review, the synopsis was too strange and intriguing to pass up... and the novel certainly fulfills those expectations.

A young woman, newly transplanted from Michigan to a massive tech company in San Francisco doesn't have the time (or possibly the nerve) to make new friends, and subsists on Slurry, the fictional version of Soylent. When she receives a delivery menu for a strange and unknown group, she becomes obsessed with their incredible bread and soup, eating it every night. When the two immigrant brothers, who have been making the food illegally in their apartment, have to leave the country, they leave their sourdough starter with her.

"Vietnamese pho's healing powers, physical and psychic, make traditional chicken noodle soup seem like dishwater... then this spicy soup, in turn, dishwatered pho. It was an elixir. The sandwich was spicier still, thin-sliced vegetables slathered with a fluorescent red sauce, the burn buffered by thick slabs of bread artfully toasted."

The novel is a lovely blend of humor, food, technology, and magical realism. One can consider it magical realism, anyway, pretty much right up until the last couple of chapters. Then, it all bleeds a little bit. Honestly, I was a bit disappointed by the ending but certainly not enough to regret the rest of the reading, and I'm not really sure of how else he might have ended it, anyway.

"Here's the thing I believe about people my age: we are the children of Hogwarts, and more than anything, we just want to be sorted."

"Two men stopped to assess the Vitruvian. It was a pair of the cold-eyed wraiths I worked with at General Dexterity. I knew them by their sneakers.

'Oh, sweet,' hooted one. 'Didn't expect to see a V3 here.'

'Look at that beast,' said the other.

'It's so clunky, dude! The old motors were super slow.'

'Actually,' I said - oh, it felt good - 'the Vitruvian 3's motors are exactly the same as the V4's. They're all PKD 2891s. It's just that the V4's chassis is lighter.'

The wraiths noticed me for the first time. 'Wait,' said the first. 'I know you, right? You're... one of our marketing people?'

My face burned hot, but through force of will, I cooled my gaze to absolute zero kelvin. 'Actually.' It felt very good. 'I work on Control.'

The wraiths pulled knives from their waistbands and committed ritual suicide.

Actually, they backed slowly away, and I never saw them again."

A young techie discovers sourdough and some of the meaning of life. An interesting juxtaposition of old and new methods (and philosophies) of feeding the world and an extremely likable protagonist. I enjoyed this!

Robin Sloan writes books about things that I wish existed, like secret societies, book and/or food-based adventures, clubs based on your name (the Lois Club is real!), the double spicy Combo, and these things are all present in Sourdough. It's a fun, quirky read, full of adventurous paths for Lois Clary and the reader. Sourdough culture does exist, and I've now got one started on my kitchen counter so I can bake some sourdough bread of my own. If I'm lucky, it might unclench my stomach, and then my brain (just like Lois).

Thank you to Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of the book.

Lois's stultifying life as a computer programmer is upended by a take out menu. She is enraptured by the spiritual burn of Mazg cuisine, spicy soup and sandwiches that reawaken her zest for life. When the brothers' visas expire, they close up shop but leave Lois, their most loyal customer, their sourdough starter. Although an utter novice at baking, her bread comes out remarkably delicious and, bizarrely, imprinted with a recognizable face. Lois juggles her job teaching robot arms about proprioception and the demands of the sourdough as it forcibly expands the borders of her life. Delightfully quirky. Not to be read while hungry.

What’s Up, Everyone?

I apologize for not having this review up on Sourdough’s publication day (September 7th) like I had hoped. I have been testing out a couple of new filming styles and the one that I tried to use to film my Sourdough review turned out terribly. Therefore, I am scrapping that footage and writing a review for you today.

A couple of years ago I read Mr. Penumbra’s 24 Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan and absolutely adored it. I loved the way that it combined books and technology. I also loved the characters and the way that the plot progressed. Ever since I have been anxiously awaiting another Robin Sloan book. So when I saw that Sourdough was finally available for request, I jumped on my chance to review it for you all. Therefore, a big thank you is in order to SFG Publishing and Robin Sloan for allowing me to have an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!

The general premise of Sourdough is that our main character, Lois Clary, is a programmer for a high tech company called General Dexterity, who is working to implement robotic arms into the workforce. Lois gets this job right out of college and moves to San Francisco to pursue it. And yet, Lois quickly discovers that while the work she is doing is interesting, it is an all consuming force in her life. The only thing that is able to cure her from feeling totally consumed by her work is the food of a restaurant called Clement Street Soup and Sourdough, which is run by two brothers who cook with the flavors of their culture, the Mazg. It comes to pass that these two brothers end up having to leave the country and they bestow their Sourdough starter to Lois to take care of (with a whole trunk of things for her to start learning to bake with). This is the start of Lois’s new life, one consumed with teaching the V3 arm that General Dexterity has been working on to bake with the starter, as well as Lois’s mission to keep the starter alive.

The premise of Sourdough leads me to one of the best parts of the book; the way that Robin Sloan combines food and technology. Throughout the book, the reader gets introduced to different, off the wall ways of thinking about food and eating. Some people around Lois prefer to eat a food substitute called Slurpy, that has all of the nutrients a person could need for a meal. Slurpy, while nutritious, doesn’t provide the same enjoyment for Lois that fresh baked Sourdough does. The two camps, Slurpy vs Sourdough (or fine dining in general) are compared throughout the book in an effort to answer the question, “which is better?” Ultimately, it is decided that advancements in the technology of food can be appreciated by the same people that love good, old fashioned sourdough and fine dining culture. In this way, I believe that Robin Sloan presented a very interesting, food related argument that made me think as I read. It was also cool because the presence of the question, “which is better?” allowed the book to explore different foods from both sides of the argument. The exploration of new advancements in technologically advanced food processing and consumption was my favorite part of this book by far.

The second part of this book that I liked was a little group of ladies named Lois, called the Lois Club. Apparently, this is an actual thing! Look it up! There is a whole video on Youtube of a bunch of women named Lois singing the official Lois Club theme song. It is adorkable. Anywho, because Baker Lois doesn’t get out of work that often, she doesn’t have many people in San Fran that she knows. To combat her loneliness Lois attends this club that Her grandmother started where anyone named Lois can bond with other women named Lois. The Lois’s that we meet at the Lois club provide a significant amount of lovable, adorableness to the story that makes me want to be named Lois just so that I can attend one of the Lois Club’s meetings.
Along the same lines, I enjoyed the two brother’s that were featured in the story and their bakery. They are a hoot in the beginning of the book and pop back in every once in awhile to check up on Lois and the starter. Just like the Lois’s, they were great side characters and provided a lot of comedic relief to the overall story.

It is at this point that I would like to mention that I was really excited for this book. Like, REALLY excited for this book. I had very high expectations of it. I loved the premise, I love food and I love tech. I really was on this book’s side from the very beginning.

In spite of my hopes, I slowly began to realize as I was reading Sourdough that I was not loving this book. Which made me sad. Then I finished the book and I didn’t love it, which made me even sadder. Even though there isn’t a whole lot that I can say without spoiling the events of the book, I am going to try very hard to explain the points that I think lead to my disappointment.

Firstly, I didn’t feel an emotional attachment to the characters (other than the Lois’s and the two brothers). I really didn’t find Lois, our main character, compelling. She was incredibly bland, even though she was supposed to be a genius who was also close to my age. Maybe it was the writing style of Sourdough, but I connected with the characters in Mr. Penumbra’s, so I don’t know how much of my perception of Lois I can blame on the writing style. I also didn’t connect to the people that Lois meets over the course of the novel. They were interesting and I wanted to learn more about the work that they were doing. However, I can’t say that I was invested in any of them or that I had an emotional connection to them. Additionally, the Lois’s and the brothers, which were the characters that I connected with the most over the course of the book, really aren’t present for that much of the story. The brothers are present for a little bit at the beginning, but they quickly become a way for Sloan to give Lois information on the starter and the culture of the Mazg. In the end, I just wanted more in terms of character development. Which leads me to my next point….

Nothing happens in this book until it does. That last sentence may not make any sense unless you read the book, but somehow Sourdough was incredibly slow paced until it isn’t. You would think that a story about technology, food, and culture would be interesting, right? Yes, and to a certain extent, it was. I was interested in learning about the developments that Lois was making at General Dexterity and in her future endeavors. Even so, beyond the generally interesting nature of the science and ways of cooking that are explored in this book, it is very, very dry. Until the end. In the end, Sourdough pulls a full Rumor Weed from Veggie Tales meets Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. The book is totally aware of the giant leaps that it is making and even goes as far as to have Lois reference Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs. Which leads me to my last point.

This book is a magical realism/science fiction book. Yep. Didn’t see that one coming did ya? Okay, maybe you did because you read the tags on Goodreads. Regardless, I was not expecting this to have magical realism or science fiction in it and man, does it hit you hard with the magical realism and science fiction elements of the story. Leaps are made in logic that are just weird. I am totally on board with weird. Good weird is often great! This was just strange. Even though there was a lot of science behind what was happening, I couldn’t get behind how ridiculous the events of the book were. There is a general sense of magical/science fiction style goings on from the sourdough itself that subtly weaves its way through the first 97% of this book. It is like the science fiction side of this book was just sitting in a bowl, popping up every once in awhile to remind you that sourdough wasn’t what it seemed and then, BAM! At the end, this book smacks you upside the face with children’s bedtime story levels of silliness. I think that it was a combination of the generally dry nature of the first 97% of Sourdough, combined with the pretty out of left field lunacy of the last 3% of Sourdough that made my overall enjoyment of the novel decrease. There is also a “mystery” (I am using this word very lightly) integrated into the premise of Sourdough and not only was it a sub-sub plot, but the reveal wasn’t shocking and didn’t really give me a sense of gratification.

Ultimately, was Sourdough my favorite? No. Am I going to rave about Sourdough and send you running to your local bookstore to pick it up? Probably not. Am I probably going to read another Robin Sloan book if he writes another one? Yes. I genuinely like Robin Sloan as an author and I know that we can write a book that I can fall in love with (see example: Mr. Penumbra’s). I just didn’t end up loving Sourdough as much as I loved his previous book and that’s OK. Maybe I will have better luck with the next thing that he writes (fingers crossed).
Again, thank you to SFG Publishing, Netgalley and Robin Sloan for allowing me to read an ARC of Sourdough in exchange for an honest review.

Overall:
2.5 stars out of 5
65% out of 100%
-Jaime

Lois is an software engineer at a robotics firm in San Francisco. She goes to work everyday. She has the “Slurry” like her co-workers. (Slurry is some kind of liquid food.) She goes home at night to her little apartment. It is all the same routine until a flyer appears at her door one night. It advertises spicy soup and bread. That’s it. Lois calls and with that call, her life changes. There is something about that soup and bread that seems to light a spark in her. When the brothers, who were just cooking out of their apartment, move away, they leave her the magical sourdough starter and this changes her life forever.

I don’t know how to explain this book. It has a lot going on. From the the magic of the starter to the joy of baking, the bread and starter have a life of their very own. I loved how Lois changed throughout the story. Her analytical mind took her beyond baking to the science of the oven or the way music made the starter bloom. I also loved that this was set in the bay area because that is where I am from and it highlighted it beautifully. I loved when I knew exactly where they were talking about. It is written with such perfect detail and I swear sometimes I could actually smell that starter bubbling with it’s hint of banana or the bread baking and popping out warm from the oven. I also loved the different chapters between Lois and Beo, one of the brothers. We were able to see how everything is really connected and the history of the starter. It is a great story of self discovery. Now if you will excuse me, I think I need some bread and butter.

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux in exchange for an honest review.

A delightful, quirky, random little book that was just plain fun to read. It's a perfect snapshot of the era we currently live in, and I think millennial readers in particular will be able to relate to protagonist Lois Clary. At its heart, the book offers the positive message of following one's dreams, no matter how unconventional or inconvenient. In some ways, it reminded me of THE PORTABLE VEBLEN, only ten times funnier.

Mr. Penumbra's 24-hour bookstore, it was not. But then, the latter is one of my favorite books. This is one seemed to be Mr. Penumbra-lite. Still with twists and turns. Still a good read. Luckily, I find sourdough starter interesting.

I admit, it took me a while to adjust to the email correspondence.

No matter how I sliced it, I thought it could have risen higher.

Robotics company engineer Lois’s life changes in an unimaginable way after being gifted with a prized sourdough starter by the owner of her favorite sandwich shop who was closing his business. She’s never cooked for herself let alone made a loaf of bread yet Lois makes it her mission to keep the sourdough alive and in short order, creates a sought after bread which even made my mouth water.

Lois’s world opens up when she meets someone who invites her to become a member in an exclusive ‘underground market’ where food technology meets art. It is there that the story really picked up for me as we are introduced to the quirky characters with unique interpretations of food. The one stipulation for Lois’s inclusion in this exclusive underworld is that she develop a bread-making robot. I felt lucky to being along for the ride in Lois’s transformation that all started with an inherited sourdough. A unique and delightful book.

I read Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore a couple years ago and it really reignited my love of reading, so I was very excited when I heard that Robin Sloan’s next book, Sourdough was coming out. I had no idea what it would be about, but I knew if Robin Sloan wrote it, I’d want to read it.

Lois Clary is new to San Francisco and works as a developer at a robotics company. Her ritual dinner is delivery from a restaurant that serves just a few items, including an amazing sourdough bread and spicy soup.

When the restaurant mysteriously shuts down, the proprietors leave a gift for Lois, their "Number One Eater”, their sourdough starter. It’s here that the mystery begins. Who exactly were the owners of the restaurant? Why did they leave their sourdough starter with Lois? What is so special about this starter? Who exactly are the Mazg?

The story follows Lois as she learns about the starter and baking sourdough in general. Through the course of the story, Sloan goes into intricate detail about baking bread, building a bread oven and the machinations of the Bay Area Farmer’s Markets.

Overall, it was an interesting story and if you like books about food, this would be right up your alley. In the end I kept comparing Sourdough to Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore and I didn’t feel it quite lived up to the mystery and intrigue of Sloan’s previous book.

What a well-thought out, charming, quirky story by Robin Sloan! Readers of Sarah Addison Allen, Louise Miller's The City Baker's Guide to Country Living, and baking books in general should get your hands on Sourdough immediately! Sloan has created a lovely dichotomy of her protagonist's life. Millennial Lois has graduated college, been recruited by a robotics company in San Francisco, but isn't really living her life to the fullest. She's constantly working and drinking Slurry, otherwise understood as a Pedialyte meant for adults. Everything changes when she befriends the owners of a delivery restaurant and their sourdough bread makes her grow and rise into someone she didn't know she could be. Inspiring, informative, and shouldn't be missed!

This book is about a woman baking bread and how this process transforms her and her life.

I know, sounds simple, right?

Well, if you have baked bread you know there's a lot more to it than just putting the ingredients together. First, you have to understand that there is something different about baking sourdough bread, you have to have a "starter".

A "starter" is a fermented combination of yeast, good bacteria, bread and water. Generally, you have to feed it every day, it is alive and grows.

In the book the main character eats everyday from a place she loves, when the place closes the owners give her the "starter" that they use to make the sourdough bread and let her know that this is a special "starter".

The story is about her journey learning to bake sourdough bread and sharing it with her coworkers, neighbors, and a special underground farmer's market. The novel is narrated by Louis, the main character and takes place in San Francisco.

I read the author's previous book Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore and was expecting a mystery in the novel but it did not have any.

Overall, I liked the novel and recommend it to all who readers with culinary interests or those who love an interesting story.

Thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this publication in exchange for an honest review.

SOURDOUGH by Robin Sloan is surprisingly one of my favorite reads of the summer. It's about an overworked young programmer, Lois, who finds her passion – baking bread - and transforms her life and the life of others. SOURDOUGH is slow at times, but it has stayed with me due primarily to its endearing protagonist and its many humorous elements. Initially, Lois has little life outside of working at General Dexterity in the Bay Area. Her poor sleeping and eating habits gradually improve due to a mysterious local take-out's soup and bread. Sadly, the chef and his deliveryman brother run into visa issues and must leave, giving their "number one eater" (Lois) a yeasty sourdough starter and special ethnic music. Lois soon learns to bake bread, construct an oven, and even experiments with programming a robot to break eggs. This is a fun read about the possibility of following your dreams (even if you do not realize that is happening) from Robin Sloan, the author of Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, an Alex Award winner.

This was a fun, quirky read, but I did feel like something was missing. It was hard because I was comparing it to Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore.

In another slightly magical book, Mr. Sloan once again brings his readers into a world slightly perpendicular to the one we are stuck in. Lois, having moved from the midwest, is struggling in her hi-tech job until she finds a restaurant that delivers her "double spicy" nightly, including some amazing bread. When the brothers must leave the country due to expired visas, they leave her some sourdough starter. From there, Lois becomes fascinated with baking bread and it transforms her life. As we have come to expect, Mr. Sloan and his unique characters are able to bring to life and make fun of the cliches we all seem to be comfortable with while at the same time highlighting our love of life, and in this case food. This book left me in a warm cozy frame of mind, with a slight craving for sourdough bread.

4.5★
“She explained that a software sieve had scanned my résumé and flagged it as promising, and that she agreed with the computer’s assessment. Here’s a thing I believe about people my age: we are the children of Hogwarts, and more than anything, we just want to be sorted.”

Like the author’s earlier Mr. Penumbra's 24-Hour Bookstore, this book is a quirky bit of fantasy, science fiction, and fun, and I enjoyed it equally. Lois grew up surrounded by computers at a time when she says they were wooing women into computer science and “it was nice to be wooed.” Of course it was.

She applies for a job at General Dexterity in San Francisco, where they have done their Hogwarts sorting and hired her to work on robots, mostly arms for labs and factories. Her job is to break down tasks into their component movements and find faster, easier, cheaper ways to do them with robots.

“How to swirl a petri dish containing a particular strain of bacteria. How to insert a fuel rod safely into a nuclear reactor. How to sew the laces into a football. Whole companies had formed around some of these tasks. The fuel rod people had just three customers, and they were rich.”

She feels as if everyone is working faster than she is and the pressure is stressing her out to the point that she works very long hours.

“I was supposed to be one of the bright new additions, the fresh-faced ones. My face was not fresh. My hair had turned flat and thin. My stomach hurt. In my apartment on Cabrillo Street, I existed mostly in a state of catatonic recovery, brain flaccid, cells gasping.”

Between the pressure and time constraints – and the fact that she doesn’t cook – she’s been living on Slurry (a space-age nutritive gel), and getting to know all the pizza delivery services. One day, she finds an ad for ”Clement Street Soup and Sourdough” who make and deliver an exotic, secret, extra-spicy soup accompanied by slabs of fresh sourdough bread, the food of the Mazg, they say. She’s sleeping better and feeling so good she throws away all the pizza menus and sticks only this one on her fridge.

She visits her friends at the local Lois Club (saying Lois Clubs are everywhere, apparently) and settles into a comfortable routine as “Number One Eater”, as the brothers of the soup place call her.

Then, disaster! The brothers have to move before they get discovered and deported. They promise to stay in touch and leave her something to help her stay healthy. They arrive with some sourdough starter and explain that it is alive and she has to feed it. This to a young woman who has only ever had a cactus named Kubrick.

She attempts the impossible, practising with the starter and dough, and enjoying the music they've left her that she used to enjoy hearing in the background when she ordered her food – the music of the Mazg, who sound like some sort of nomadic peoples.

“There was dough on the faucet. Dough on the floor. It looked like the scene of a glutenous murder committed by a careless killer.”

She hunts down equipment on Amazon (“customers who bought this item also bought”) and barely sleeps, what with baking and working and baking and working.

She’s told about a special Farmer’s Market that is hard to get into where she might be able to sell product, and the story begins to get fantastical. To get a special spot, she’s going to need a point of differentiation and the market people discover she knows about robots.

And so it goes, with secret sites and a whole community of scientists and artists researching, experimenting and producing goods. I enjoyed the inventiveness and intriguing possibilities. Of course the fact that Robin Sloan is a good writer goes without saying.

I found it quite satisfying, especially when I had a flash of recognition at a character's reverence for Edward Espe Brown's old notes for his The Tassajara Bread Book, which is probably the first bread book I ever bought! It is hippy and fun, as I recall, but I'm afraid I never gave it the mystical respect that some may have.

A good read, and I thank NetGalley and Farrar, Straus and Giroux for the preview copy from which I’ve quoted.

I loved Sloan's previous novel, Mr. Penumbra's 24 Hour Bookstore, and this is another great book. The main character, Lois, is a computer programmer working very long days in San Francisco, collapsing into bed exhausted each night, or at least on the nights when she doesn't sleep at the office. New to the area, with few friends or interests outside of work, Lois is burning out fast. She starts ordering takeout meals from a pair of immigrant brothers and strikes up a friendship with them. But due to Visa issues, the brothers have to leave, and on their way out of town they bring her a gift - their sourdough bread starter. Lois knows nothing about baking, bread, or starters, but she's determined not to let this gift die. Her research and trial and error lead her to becoming an amateur bread baker, selling her loaves to the chef at work, and attempting to win a spot at a local farmer's market. The book follows Lois as her life changes dramatically, all because of some sourdough.

I really enjoy Sloan's writing; it's witty and really descriptive, without being too flowery. His characters tend to be quirky oddballs, just like most of us. In this novel, the characters are wrestling with the idea of technology changing the way things have always been - is that a good thing or not? Can technology improve upon the creation of food? Will that add to or take away from the comforting effects of food on our lives? Sloan isn't offering the answer here; his characters have very different views on the subject, but it's an interesting debate.