SOURDOUGH: ROBIN SLOAN

Yep, this book is about sourdough and the starter is the major protagonist of this novel.  Lois Clary, born and bred in Michigan, decamps to San Francisco, to code for General Dexterity.  Tired of the slurry they serve at the Dexterity lunchroom, she takes a chance on a takeout Clement Street Soup and Takeout.  It changes her life.  When the owners go out of business, they leave their 'special sourdough starter.' with Lois and thus begins her journey into the world of baking sourdough bread.  She eventually quits her coding job and makes bread full time. It leads her to a utopian farmers' market called Marrow's Fair, set in an abandoned munitions depot in Alameda.  There she meets all kinds of mostly organic food entrepreneurs.  Her special sourdough, its DNA, ends up disrupting the market, setting the market's owner, think Alice Waters, off on a new 'kind of food' venture.  I really liked the first half, the second half less so.  But I like the idea of sourdough bread enough to send away to Missouri for a free sourdough starter, supposedly the original 1847 starter.  I will let you know if and when it arrives, how it works.