Sourdough Announcement

I'm excited to announce the August/September selection: Sourdough by Robin Sloan (September 2017). An NPR review by Jason Sheehan describes the novel in this way: 

Think of it like Candide without the pirates. And set in San Francisco. Wait, that's not quite right. It's like Fight Club meets The Great British Bake Off. It's like Fight Club if no one got punched. It's like Fight Club if Fight Club was written by someone concerned with a different, quieter kind of revolution, and if Fight Club was all about bread.    

I had to host Sourdough for this round if not only for Sheehan's goofily spot-on review.  That leads me to the following question:   Do you like quirky?

I hope so because the August/September round is quirky galore!

Sourdough by Robin Sloan starts out, honestly, very believable.

The plot revolves around a young coder, robots, food, sourdough (obviously), farmers markets, geeky foodies, and mysterious strangers.

Sounds good, right?

Sloan riffs on the whole foodie angle with a plot that borders on a sci-fi mystery.

OK, if you are not intrigued and pulled in by now, I don't know what to do.    As the end of summer nears, pick up this book for your final day on the beach or your last lazy day.  You'll be glad you did.

Robin Sloan is also the author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24‑Hour Bookstore (which I am currently devouring---it's kind of an upbeat Club Dumas).    

Publisher blurb bio:

Robin Sloan grew up near Detroit and went to school at Michigan State, where he studied economics and co-founded a literary magazine called Oats. After college, he worked at the intersection of media and technology, first at the Poynter (pronunciation: pointer) Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida, and then at Current TV and Twitter, both in San Francisco. 

His first novel, Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, was a New York Times Best Seller, translated into more than twenty languages. George Saunders called the book “a tour-de-force” and Robin kindly requests that no one say anything else about any of his writing, ever. We are done here. 

With his partner Kathryn Tomajan (pronunciation: TOM-uh-jun), Robin manages a leased three-acre grove of olive trees in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their first batch of extra virgin olive oil will be available in 2018. 

I do hope you join in the fun and pick up Sourdough  for the August/September round.  The deadline for Sourdough is September 30, 2018.  Anyone can join in by reading the current selection, preparing a dish inspired by its contents, and writing about it. Let me know when your entry post is up by commenting on this post and/or sending me an email at eliotseats@gmail.com.  

New to Cook the Books? Welcome to all!  Check out our About and Guidelines pages or leave a question in the comments on this post.

Enjoy!
Debra

P.S.  I hope there are lots of yeasty things to post up for this round.  As for me, I have killed two sourdough starters thus far.