This book was an unexpected delight. It's a novel, written as a comic memoir (with recipes, even!), that opens with a fake premise to the second edition. The premise is this: successful food journalist and restaurant critic Dana Potowski has attended her progressive Unitarian Universalist church for more than two decades. Now the church needs a new pastor, and Dana is asked to serve on the search committee. She doesn't want to do it, because it sounds like a giant pain, plus lately she's been opting for sleeping in over attending service more often than not. But she does need an idea for her next book, and realizes that a memoir about her time on the search committee—including the recipes her readers expect from her—could be perfect. And so she says yes. Whether you're drawn to the possible religious factor here or concerned about it, you should know Dana's church prides itself on being neither religious nor particularly spiritual; more than anything this is a story of finding your path and your people, plus a close-up look at the delightfully maddening process of an all-too-human committee. I'm certain this is exactly the book some of you are searching for, right now.

Huneven’s kaleidoscopic latest begins with a road trip: in 1970s Northern California, eldest son Ellis heads up the coast with his friends to celebrate their high school graduation. He doesn’t return on schedule. His parents set off to find him and bring him home, and the aftershocks of that misguided attempt then echo through four fraught decades of family life. Through the years, Huneven takes us inside the minds of Ellis’s family members—his sisters, prickly mother, and easy-going father—plus other key figures in their lives. Even across wildly disparate timelines the themes remain steady and universal: love and grief, art and solace, alcoholism and abandonment. The story unfolds primarily in California, with brief interludes in Saudi Arabia and Oaxaca. I was constantly surprised at the leaps and pivots Huneven took while laying out their history, but enjoyed every stop along the way.