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Sourdough: A Novel
Sourdough: A Novel
Sourdough: A Novel
Audiobook6 hours

Sourdough: A Novel

Written by Robin Sloan

Narrated by Therese Plummer

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

()

About this audiobook

From Robin Sloan, the New York Times bestselling author of Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore, comes Sourdough, "a perfect parable for our times" (San Francisco Magazine): a delicious and funny novel about an overworked and under-socialized software engineer discovering a calling and a community as a baker.

Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Southern Living

Lois Clary is a software engineer at General Dexterity, a San Francisco robotics company with world-changing ambitions. She codes all day and collapses at night, her human contact limited to the two brothers who run the neighborhood hole-in-the-wall from which she orders dinner every evening. Then, disaster! Visa issues. The brothers quickly close up shop. But they have one last delivery for Lois: their culture, the sourdough starter used to bake their bread. She must keep it alive, they tell her—feed it daily, play it music, and learn to bake with it.

Lois is no baker, but she could use a roommate, even if it is a needy colony of microorganisms. Soon, not only is she eating her own homemade bread, she’s providing loaves to the General Dexterity cafeteria every day. Then the company chef urges her to take her product to the farmer’s market—and a whole new world opens up.

Includes bonus material that provides an audiobook-only glimpse at the evolving relationship between Lois and Slurry, the company upon whose dystopian meal replacements she and her engineer friends all subsist.

"Robin Sloan's second novel is an entertaining concoction of probiotic and high-tech ingredients...This is a funny, effervescent book told in the first person and given full range by Therese Plummer, whose youthful voice captures the matter-of-fact nature of Lois's unjaded, scientific temperament and the dizzying ups and downs of her spirits." — The Washington Post

"Therese Plummer, veteran narrator of more than 300 audiobooks, brings a delightfully loopy creativity to the delightfully loopy novel..." — Chicago Tribune

Editor's Note

Rises to the occasion…

A delicious satire that rises to the occasion, engulfing you in the sights and smells of the Bay Area bread scene. Software engineer Lois Clary’s whole life radically changes when she’s gifted a sourdough starter and learns how to bake. Another endearingly quirky story from the author of “Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore.”

LanguageEnglish
Release dateSep 5, 2017
ISBN9781427289285
Author

Robin Sloan

ROBIN SLOAN is a self-proclaimed media inventor and writer living in San Francisco. He grew up near Detroit and went to school at Michigan State, where he studied economics and co-founded a literary magazine. Since then, he’s worked at Poynter, Current TV and Twitter, figuring out the future of media. Visit his website at robinsloan.com.

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Reviews for Sourdough

Rating: 4.137037037037037 out of 5 stars
4/5

270 ratings9 reviews

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  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a great story! An interesting and quirky plot half a hair of a lean toward fantasy. Witty sometimes downright humorous writing, very tongue in cheek at times. I found myself laughing out loud several times. The reading itself (audiobook) was spot on, the perfect voice for the plucky protagonist.

    1 person found this helpful

  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This book is delightful! And the reader is one of the best I have listened to; she brought the story alive. Would love to hear her read other stories.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Slow moving but a cool concept but it's probably just me. I didn't find the characters as easy to relate to. And it was a little difficult to really feel the main themes. I had to do a little research to get myself more into it before I could finish. Overall the writing is great.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Enjoyable narrator and storyline, makes me want to bake!
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Uplifting and thought-provoking. It reads like a modern day fable.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    What a fun book!!! A story of robotics, sourdough, food, science, and culture. Not that kind of culture, the other culture. The original culture.
    Oh, and armies! Battles between armies. And music! The music is key!
    Just a tease, yes. But read it, and you'll understand.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Entertainingly written and read. I appreciate, as a microbiologist, that the author did their research. Amusing and warmly told.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Entertaining--and surely makes even the clumsiest want to start their baking career with sourdough.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Working as a software engineer who has a passion for baking, this hita so many right spots for me. Loved the story, how it developed, the question Rob asks about the traditional vs modern, and how food ubites people.