November Group Read - Sourdough

[Sara]

Discussion is open for Sourdough by Robin Sloan

Please use spoiler tags if you are sharing any plot related surprises.

Posts should be exclusively about this book.

When you've finished, be sure to post in the November challenge: I finished! thread.

[Chrissy]

I'm looking forward to this one - I have a couple of days left on the book I'm reading now, but already have my library copy of Sourdough ready to go. Should be able to start by the end of the week!

[Tara]

I'm really looking forward to this but I never seem to get them on time :)

[Ailsa]

Coincidentally, I just got this book out of the library before I joined this group!

I'm just a few chapters in, and I'm enjoying it a lot so far. Even though nothing has really happened as such there's definitely a sense of magic and wonder in it. And it's definitely making me hungry for bread.

[Shannon]

I'm still in the waitlist at the library for this. Hopefully I'll get to it in November. It sounds great.

[Larissa]

This is a super quirky read- at least for me. I didn't not enjoy it, but, wow, weird near the end. But just a side note, I grew up in Alameda so I know exactly the little boat dock she takes- it was near my childhood home.

[poshpenny]

My favorite thing is it's quirkiness.

[Patricia]

I read this early also and enjoyed it. I was hoping to get the soul of sourdough from this book. And it did deliver. Making the bread is a responsibility I do not want to undertake right now! I also grew up in the Bay Area and enjoyed the romp thru Alameda, SF and Berkeley. What did you think of the Alice Waters character?

[Kara]

I just got my copy from the library! Looking forward to reading this book!

[Karen]

I'll just post the text of my review of this book here (no spoilers).

This book was unexpected. It was unexpectedly slim. When I picked it up from the library hold shelf I was surprised at its petite girth. Its author is unexpectedly male. It wasn't until I was about 100 pages in that I realized Robin wasn't a woman's name (in this case). This doesn't have much bearing on the story, or my impression of it, really. And it is unexpectedly sci-fi. I want to put all kinds of labels on this story. At first I labeled it hipster. The protagonist is a millennial programmer who unexpectedly (aha!) comes into possession of a mystical substance-- sourdough starter-- bestowed upon her by a pair of mysterious brothers of unidentifiable ethnicity. What unfolds is a sort of contemporary dystopic scenario shot through with a kind of magical realism, comprising something resembling an allegory, but subtle, not preachy. I liked this book, though it wasn't what I expected.

Re the Alice Waters reference, aha! Of course. I've read a bit about food and restaurants over the years and I know who she is.

Also this book had a bit of the same mood as The Circle to me, but not quite so deeply creepy. More just hints of the massively conglomerated, automated and data-linked nature of the society we're building and inhabiting.

[Larissa]

Monkiecat wrote: "I must be the last person left on the planet who didn't know who Alice Waters was... I was thinking Alice Waters? I don't remember that character... had to google :) but yeah, I get it now lol
Mayb..."

I didn't know who Alice Waters was either.

[Chrissy]

I read about half of the book last night, and really enjoyed it. Seems like it was written just for me! I drove my own car from suburban Detroit to SF just after college and the “z-axis” description was dead on. I’m not in tech, but my husband is. We LOVE the ferry building. The author gets a lot right in evoking the feeling of the Bay Area, for sure. I also love the exchanges with the brothers. I’m intrigued to hear that the story gets weird/magical. Who knows, may I will finish tonight!

[Monica]

Larissa wrote: "Monkiecat wrote: "I must be the last person left on the planet who didn't know who Alice Waters was... I was thinking Alice Waters? I don't remember that character... had to google :) but yeah, I g..."

Who is Alice Waters?

[Nikky]

Would this fit any of 2018 prompts as reading through the comments it looks like an interesting read

[Anna]

Nikky wrote: "Would this fit any of 2018 prompts as reading through the comments it looks like an interesting read"

Recommended by someone taking the challenge? Meant to read in 2017? Or prompt from a previous challenge, like "one-word title" (2015) or "book about food" (2017).

Also, possibly, a Goodreads Choice winner. (I saw it in the semifinals.)

[Nikky]

I wasn't sure if it would fit cyberpunk? I'm having a hard time finding one for that

[Chrissy]

Monica wrote: "Larissa wrote: "Monkiecat wrote: "I must be the last person left on the planet who didn't know who Alice Waters was... I was thinking Alice Waters? I don't remember that character... had to google ..."

She is a famous chef and food activist who started Chez Pannise in Berkeley. Lots of cookbooks, and she has done a lot with schools to develop garden-to-table programs for urban kids.

[Chrissy]

I finished! I really liked it, possibly even more than Mr. Penumbra. The ending was very fitting.

[Patricia]

So sorry. I’m a California girl who grew up in the Bay Area and a foodie to boot. I just assumed everyone in the entire universe knew about Alice Waters. My bad. So, she is a famous restauranteur from Berkeley, California who is credited with the food and term “California Cuisine”. Her restaurant Chez Panisse is famous here.

[Susan]

Same here Patricia! Sad to think her influence has remained so local.

I read this book quite a bit ago. Loved it so much that I was able to convince my husband to read it. He isn't a big reader but loves bread making.

[Patricia]

So Susan, is your husband going to make a starter and bake you bread!? I really love sourdough but can’t commit to daily bread making. I do bake a good loaf in my Le Cruset kettle. Although it’s not a true sourdough, I’ll take what I can get. Warm bread with a smear of butter.
I really loved this quirky book and so glad that I found this book club. My reading was getting very stale.

[Jacqueline]

I've gone off sourdough bread since I read about a woman who used her own vaginal yeast to make her own....yeahhhhh pretty gross

[Tara]

I have a starter that is about 6 months old. I don't bake with it daily or even weekly but he's my buddy lol it's like having a pet

[Chrissy]

We are having sourdough tonight! My husband has a starter he’s really pleased with, been going for a long time.

[Jacqueline]

Monkecat ewww doesn't quite cover it....

[Jackie]

I just finished it and I loved it! Sloan is quickly solidifying himself as a favorite author. I love the characters and the plots and the everything.

Also I really really really need to buy some sourdough...just not from weird vagina bread lady.

Anybody else squeal every time they noticed a Penumbra's reference? Oh, and if you got the hardcover, take off the dust jacket ;)

[Tara]

I finally got it!! Yay for early enough to join lol just have to finish the bear and the Nightingale

[Shannon]

I really enjoyed this book. I loved all the tech and science references and I love to bake, but bread is my nemesis I just can't get it right. I wish someone would gift me a magical starter. I thought the book was charming and strange in such a great way.

[Rachel]

Hi, bookish friends! I finished the audiobook last night and I really loved it! It totally left me with a warm and fuzzy inspired feeling.

Unfortunately, I have celiac disease, so I will probably never eat real bread again. I'm totally living vicariously through all of you! It was kind of funny reading a book that revolves so heavily around what I refer to as "the gluten monster".

Extra props to this book for including some heroic goats! I have Nigerian Dwarf goats and people call me the "goat girl", so I thought Agrippa was especially funny.

Did this book make anyone else feel motivated??

[Addie Dehart]

I think I must be in the minority. This book was just a meh book for me. I don't really like light, fluffy, funny reads and I think this would classify as such. If it were a longer book I probably would have DNF'd it.

[Julia]

Finished.
It's not something I would choose by myself. The book is very light and even engaging sometimes, but it left me with a strange feeling.
3 stars only

[Tara]

The description of "slurping nutritive gel" is repulsive 🤢

[Kara]

Tara wrote: "The description of "slurping nutritive gel" is repulsive 🤢"

Yes! But it fit. There was such a difference between the repulsive description of the nutritive gel and the warm and lovely description of the bread. Similar feelings evoked by the differences between her descriptions of her life pre- and post-sourdough.

[Tara]

I just finished and despite some weirdness that makes it hard to categorize I really liked this book. I was hoping for one of those books with recipes at the end! Oh well, it made me want to start using my starter again, I've had him (Henry) for almost a year but haven't been baking with him much.

[Michelle]

Late to the party but just finished this one and dropped back off at the library yesterday. I enjoyed it! It had some similar themes to other books I've read for the Challenge this year, and yet also, its own fresh (ha) take on life. A bit of science and a bit of mythology. Still pondering it this morning.

I generally don't care for the sour taste of sourdough, but I do love crusty bread in general, and the starter idea is intriguing. Very glad for the monthly challenge leading me to this book :)

[Kim]

Nikky wrote: "I wasn't sure if it would fit cyberpunk? I'm having a hard time finding one for that"

I had it down for this category (Cyberpunk), but will probably read the book I serendipitously bought my husband for Christmas, Ready Player One. In that case, I'm still looking for a prompt to fit Sourdough, since I really want to read it!

I think I have a book for my favorite from a previous year's challenge, and one that is recommended by a Goodreads reader. I was hoping to save those for my "Chance" category, like in Yahtzee.

ETA: I ended up taking Nikky's advice and using this for a prompt from a previous challenge: "one-word title" (2015) .

[Tara]

Could maybe work for mental health sort of, if you borrowed or got as a gift (or maybe use RP1 as borrowed from tor husband), ugly cover is subjective, or definitely recommended by someone doing the challenge plus it could fit any number of past categories