Staff Pick: 52 Loaves

52 Loaves: one man's relentless pursuit of truth, meaning, and a perfect crust
by William Alexander

In 52 Loaves, William Alexander, an IT manager and amateur baker, recounts a year spent trying to bake the “perfect“ loaf of bread. Alexander, author of The $64 Tomato, takes the reader on a quest that involves growing his own wheat, building a brick oven in his backyard and traveling to a yeast factory in Canada, a commercial wheat mill, a communal oven in Morocco and, ultimately, a French monastery, where he teaches the monks to make their own bread. It is a very engaging and well-written book about the lessons that a smart and sensitive person learned from trying to do something as well as possible—and that is a story always worth reading.
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