I found this good-condition hardcover at a local Savers thrift shop. It's a very entertaining novel about a software engineer in San Francisco (imagine one of the many intense high-tech companies in Silicon Valley) whose only social life involves visiting a local eatery for meals. When the owners have to leave the country, they ask her if she'll adopt their treasured sourdough starter, and - somewhat to her own surprise - she agrees.

Now, I've made sourdough starter in the past, and tended it for a couple of years before I realized I wasn't that devoted to using it regularly. (RIP, sourdough starter...) It made really tasty bread and pancakes, though, and if you're at all interested in the process I strongly recommend giving it a try. Or read this book first and see if our heroine's adventures with microorganisms make it sound tempting!

Since caring for the starter means adding ingredients to keep the yeasts active and removing portions to keep it from overflowing its container, there's incentive to make things with it, and Lois begins to dabble in sourdough cookery, bringing some of her goods to work. She gains a following, is nudged into participating in a local farmers market - and stumbles into a sub-culture of dedicated techies-and-artisanal-cooks... It's all great fun, with lavish descriptions of different types of foods, techniques, community marketing efforts, and - oh, yeah - some personal relationships and growth. (Um, that bit about "growth" was a semi-intentional pun, given one of the more hilarious sequences near the end of the book; yeast-based starters can go Revenge of the Blob all too easily!)

I left this book on a table in the entrance to Burton's restaurant in the mall while stopping by for lunch; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in NH here.]

*** Released for the 2019 One-Word Title release challenge. ***

Found at the Blythewood Farm Little Library on Pine Hill Rd in Hollis NH