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November 1, 2021

Done with a book tour, food writer Dana Potowski cautiously agrees to join her Unitarian Universalist congregation's search committee for a new minister, secretly deciding to write a memoir about the experience, replete with recipes. A smash hit, her book profiles both the committee members and the candidates, who range from a baker and to a microbrewer to a reverend who's both a self-proclaimed witch and an environmental activist. The candidates represent very different directions for the congregation, and Dana ends up impassioned about the direction she wants. Huneven has the chops to write this narrative, as she's both a National Book Critics Circle finalist for the novel Blame and a James Beard Award winner for her journalism.

Copyright 2021 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2022
What goes on behind the scenes of the search for a Unitarian minister becomes book fodder for a Southern California writer. Huneven shows her range with a folksy, funny fifth novel on the unlikely subject of how bad decisions happen to good committees. Food writer, memoirist, and donkey owner Dana Potowski is casting about for an idea for her next book when she's beset by "search committee ideation"--the urge to join the select group of her fellow congregants that will spend one year choosing the next minister of the Arroyo Unitarian Universalist Community Church. What's more, she'll write a book about it! After all, there are books about "a year of having sex every day; a year of not generating any trash, of not buying anything"--why not this? Readers with no a priori interest in church politics may have their doubts, but Huneven makes this deep dive into the workings of the modern committee process and the politics of Unitarianism engaging and thought-provoking. The voting, the vetting, the drama, the discord, the anti-oppression training--it's all here. Her large cast--eight search committee members, a great number of prospective ministers, and several pewsful of others--is carefully constituted to embrace every age group and type, from the tattooed to the senescent, people of color, polyamorists, addicts, and a few members of the good old White heteropatriarchy. A James Beard-awarded food writer herself, Huneven gives her characters wonderful meals at home and in restaurants and includes a selection of complicated but delicious-sounding recipes at the end. A few caveats: The presentation of the novel as a surreptitiously created memoir doesn't add much; plotlines about a past friendship and a possible romance are weak. Like the lamb shank at the cafeteria: tender, salty, and worthy of note.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 1, 2022
The progressive Arroyo Unitarian Universalist Church (AUUC, ""pronounced awk") sits among enchanting gardens and is home to an "overprivileged, over indulged, over-functioning" congregation. On a mission to replace their retiring pastor, AUUC's search-committee members have confident opinions about what is vital in a church leader. They will steer clear of candidates wanting a preretirement gig in California; everything else is up for grabs as committee members assess candidates' beards, activism, gender, and age. The process has the madcap elements of a dating app and pageant as the final candidates strut their ecclesiastical stuff. In Huneven's (Off Course, 2014) novel-as-memoir, middle-aged, fashion-forward restaurant critic and writer Dana Potowski decides that her search-committee work is also material ripe for her next book. Readers will find Dana's takes on committee microdramas, factions, and vagaries of church and friendship relatable. Food lovers will enjoy Dana's restaurant visits and detailed food descriptions. The book's finale is a collection of AUUC members' signature recipes, a pleasing finish to this fresh work by award-winning novelist and food journalist Huneven.

COPYRIGHT(2022) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

February 14, 2022
Huneven frames her bloated latest (following Off Course) as the second edition of restaurant critic and food writer Dana Potowski’s latest book, also titled Search, which documents a Southern California Unitarian Universalist church’s search for a new minister. The search committee is a motley crew of eight, ranging in age from 20-something Jennie Kanematsu-Ross, a feisty former goth girl; to long time member and former church president Belinda Bauer, 82. There’s also 50-something Dana, who joins in order to write the book, sensing an opportunity to describe the meals that take place during the meetings. Along the way, she chronicles her own spiritual development, which involved her enrollment in a seminary two decades earlier. Huneven’s descriptions of the committee’s machinations are engaging, as are the group’s internecine struggles—the younger members favoring showmanship and originality in a minister, while the older set values more traditional qualities. Huneven injects humor and tension, but the endless cataloging of minutiae (meetings, “packets,” surveys, more meetings called “cottage groups”) wears thin, and the denouement may leave some cold. Readers will need to be patient and generous to get the most out of the insights buried in this slow-going affair.

February 1, 2022

The award-winning Huneven (Off Course) has written a fictional memoir narrated by Dana Potowski, a restaurant critic and food writer in Altadena, CA. Despite her successes, Dana feels stalled in a career she chose instead of finishing seminary studies. When the beloved minister at her Unitarian Universalist church retires, Dana becomes the recorder on the selection committee to search for a new minister; only her husband, Jack, knows that she's secretly there to gather material for her next book. Diverse in terms of race and age, the committee of eight is the church in miniature; for one long year, they meet, talk, go on retreats, and have group-building exercises. Personalities unfold and alliances form and break up as they follow the church handbook in their quest to find a new minister. They want someone experienced and interested in social justice, and most members want a woman. The final vote is rancorous, and intractable activists wear everyone down, splitting longtime friendships. Is the chosen candidate the best for their church? Dana is too busy editing her book about the search to find out. VERDICT Huneven's breezy style carries the plot, which is peppered with standout characters guaranteed to resemble someone readers know, and she addresses church philosophy with a light touch that many will appreciate.--Donna Bettencourt

Copyright 2022 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.