Review: Sourdough by Robin Sloan

Sourdough by Robin Sloan
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I thought this book was extremely charming. It has its quirky. weird parts, but I really loved it. I loved all the technical references and all the baking information. I honestly wish someone would gift me a magical bread starter. I love to bake but can't make bread, it is my nemesis. I have a background in engineering and robotics, so I loved that part just as much.

I used this for my challenge prompt to read a book about food, only 7 more books to go for 2017.  I struggled to find a book for this category.  Sourdough came up as a recommendation several times, but it wasn't until I saw a review by PeruseProject on YouTube that I actually wanted to give it a shot.  It never appealed to me until Regan reviewed it as a weird, yet charming book and I 100% agree with her.  I can relate to Lois in several ways, which made me like this even more.

Lois Clary is a gifted, young computer programmer. She was recruited from her auto manufacturing job in Michigan, to work in in the cutting edge start-up disctrict of San Francisco. In California she works endless hours as a robotics programmer trying to solve big problems, living on nutritive gel called Slurry, barely sleeping, and really not finding satisfaction in what she is doing. One night she finds a menu for Clement Street Soup and Sourdough, and orders spicy soup and sourdough bread. The exotic food comforts Lois and it is all she eats, when she doesn't eat Slurry that is. Lois gets to know the 2 brothers that operate Clement Street just as they have to close their shop and leave the US. They gift her baking supplies and a crock of their bread started and instruct her on how to keep it alive. Lois decides that she'd going to try her hand at making bread from the starter, so she does some homework and buys some cooking supplies online. After struggling to get it right, Lois finds success in making sourdough bread with the magical starter. She starts out just making bread for herself, then she starts sharing with neighbors, and before she knows it she's selling her delicious bread to the chef at work and has a market stall at a weird farmers market. Lois quickly finds herself teaching a robotic arm how to make bread, and learns that her starter is not just any old sourdough starter. Eventually Lois must choose between her job as a programmer or her job as a baker, she also has to deal with the tempermental starter that kind of has a mind of its own.

I really enjoyed this. I loved Sloan's writing. The mysterious backstory about the starter was really interesting as were all of the characters. I ended the book wanting a "double spicy", or atleast some sourdough bread.