Mary Lo Casio’s Sourdough offers a thoughtful and informative dive into the world of naturally leavened bread, blending personal narrative with instructional insight. The book clearly comes from a place of deep personal experience and care for the art of sourdough, and readers new to baking will likely appreciate Lo Casio’s grounded, conversational tone. She walks through the process with an emphasis on patience and intuition, making the craft feel approachable, even for beginners.

What shines most in this book is the personal storytelling woven into the technical guidance. Lo Casio doesn’t just tell you how to feed a starter or shape a boule—she connects those steps to real-life lessons on discipline, slowing down, and engaging with the present. Her reflections make the book more than a baking manual; it becomes part memoir, part meditation. For readers looking to connect to sourdough on a more philosophical or emotional level, these moments can be quietly powerful.

However, the book does falter in some key areas. While Lo Casio’s tone is warm and accessible, the structure can feel uneven and occasionally repetitive. Some sections drift too far into personal anecdote without a clear takeaway or direct connection to the technique at hand. Others linger too long on concepts that might have been more impactful if presented with sharper focus or visual support (like diagrams or photos). More experienced bakers might also find the content a bit light—the book assumes little prior knowledge, which is great for novices but limits its usefulness for those looking to deepen their skills.

In terms of layout and usability, Sourdough could benefit from clearer recipe formatting and step-by-step breakdowns. While the narrative voice is compelling, it sometimes overshadows the practical side. Readers eager to get baking might find themselves flipping back and forth to locate instructions or measurements. A few simple adjustments in how information is organized would make the book more functional as a reference.

Overall, Sourdough is a heartfelt and engaging introduction to baking with a natural starter. It’s best suited to readers who are less concerned with precision and more interested in the reflective, almost meditative aspects of the process. While it doesn’t quite deliver as a comprehensive manual, it offers a unique perspective that blends craft and care—and that’s a worthwhile combination for many home bakers.

I’ve never made sourdough anything but having enjoyed Mary Lo Caso’s book I’m encouraged to try. The author has done a good job of providing the basics to know and entices the reader to expand their skills.

Great resource on baking with sourdough and proper care for your starter. Mary has done a lot of research into recipe development and her book is perfect for any beginner or seasoned sourdough baker!

I’m sourdough obsessed unfortunately I’m also horrible at sourdough. At least I give it the old college try. Repeatedly. It’s just so finicky. This book gives me hope. Lots of great guidance and recipes.

Everything you want and more in a Sourdough cookbook is in this book. You'll even get some interesting history of this historic dough. Didn't think you wanted to know the history, well you'll think differently as you learn about it in this book. Sourdough has been around for a long time and has never lost popularity, but has increased in popularity or come back into the limelight since 2020. People were making their own sourdough as they were home during the pandemic. Sourdough can be used for many things including pizza, cakes and pies. You'll find all sorts of recipes in this book.

Other things you'll learn from this book are sourdough nutritional benefits and how to ferment it, which is important. The starter types are also discussed along with maintaining them. If you think of this as a hobby or something you want to do because you truly enjoy making your own sourdough this book can help throughout the process. The details and information here is fantastic, but the lack of photos is something I don't like finding in a recipe book. This one is very lacking.

I loved that this book broke down the process and gave a lot of basic recipes. I never knew so many things could be made from sourdough starters. I'm excited to try it out!

Thank you, NetGalley and BooksGoSocial, for this eArc.

Great Sourdough recipe book!! Not only are the recipes fantastic, but the information, help and knowledge behind making sourdough (good Sourdough) is in here!! Easy 5 stars! A must have for anybody that wants to make a good sourdough bread, but isn't sure quite how!!

Mmmm! Recipes and Tips to Try!



Like most of the world I jumped on the Sourdough bandwagon during Covid. It was a great way to relax and yummy results. I would recommend this book to anyone starting out! Mary Lo Caso also has an online presence so make sure you also follow her there.

I received a complimentary ARC of this book from NetGalley on behalf of the Publisher and was under no obligation to post a favorable review.

I was very impressed with how in-depth this book goes into sourdough. Most I have read skim over the why and how of sourdough. This book gives so much information before readers get to the point of making sourdough. I can hardly wait to have a bit of free time to really dive into the process of making sourdough.

Very informative book on all things sourdough! I will definitely refer to this book when I'm ready to give sourdough a try!

Thank you, NetGalley, for an e-ARC of Sourdough by Mary Lo Caso.
This book is perfect for anyone interested in sourdough. Mary Lo Caso gives tips and tricks to help you step-up your sourdough game. A great book for beginners, but relevant for experts. Personally, I wanted more recipes and less information, but this book is a great resource.

I've learned more things about the sourdough and I found this book really useful. The recipes seem so easy and I was craving bread all the time I was reading it. And I loved how there were included other types of recipes where you can use the sourdough too.

I got some great tips and tricks when it comes to Sourdough - I can’t wait to get started. I can tell this author is great at baking which is a huge plus

A truly informative read that gives you a vast amount of knowledge on sourdough. I had a wonderful trip through the history and the first sourdough dated back further than even I imagined. I had no idea of all the benefits of this bread but there are many. As you continue you are introduced to all the terminology you will need to know to make this bread. I usually try several recipes when I make my way through a cookbook but with this one I'm working on getting the starter just right so that I can have a field day when it is. I've marked quite a few that I want to try and that sound delicious. I enjoyed how informative this book was and am having fun at the beginning with my starter.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC of "Sourdough: How to Make Artisan Fermented Bread , Rustic Pizza Recipes and Homemade Yeast" by Mary Lo Caso. I was very interested in this book as I was maybe the only person I know who didn't resort to making their own bread during the Pandemic. I figured it was probably time to jump on board and learn more about this area of baking - something I am not at all familiar with. This book was fairly easy to follow, however I am still a beginner and definitely need more time to become better at making such a simple but complex recipe.

I’m so glad that I stumbled upon this book because it reminded me of just how much fun I used to have making bread, especially sourdough. I used to regularly bake sourdough bread when I was a teenager, but after I moved out and got busy with living life I forgot all about this past hobby. I’m really excited to use the information I learned in this book to begin making sourdough again. The only flaw I had with this book is the lack of photos. Having quality photos throughout this book would have really brought it to life.

A perfect introduction to a "starter" (yes I can hear the groan).

I did enjoy this and found it interesting, wonderful instructions on how to get going as well as what to do with it other than bake bread. A great addition to a baker's collection.

Wow just in time to create a starter and make bread in the cooler weather! This is a well written and thorough guide to creating a starter, maintaining it, and utilizing it to create a surprising number of fermented bread foods. Recipes include a description, prep and baking times, ingredients in a bullet list, and step by step directions. Ingredient measurements are provided in standard measurements only. Optional ingredients and alternate preps are listed in parentheses in each recipe. This would make a good beginning guide for folks who want to make high quality grain based fermented breads from scratch. There are no real photos so that is a drawback for those that like to see the photos. I am excited to try a few of the techniques.

Thank you to netgalley, author and publisher for the opportunity..

A very informative book on how to capture wild yeast and work with sourdough including recipes. Like many reviewers, I believe it would benefit greatly with photos of the recipes and tutorials. Unfortunately, much of the information is available for free online and its hard, without the personal details or the photos, to recommend this as the quintessential guide for working with sourdough.

This is a great collection of recipes, instructions, and ideas for using sourdough. It not only gives some of the history of sourdough, but provides first how to create your basic sourdough starter. Then it moves on to the easier sourdough recipes, providing good step-by-step instructions on how to create the bread. Then it goes into recipes that are more challenging. The book provides not just recipes for bread and gluten-free bread, but dinner rolls, flavored sourdoughs, cinnamon rolls, waffles, pancakes, and desserts like brownies along with many others.

Overall I enjoyed reading through this book and if I get brave I may try making sourdough again. I used to make it years ago when someone gave me a starter. I'm a little hesitant to make a starter myself, but I may give it a try. I've always heard that the older the starter is, the better the bread - and I adore sourdough bread!

Thanks to BooksGoSocial through Netgalley for a copy of this book.