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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.