So, in my quest to read more books this year (stop laughing, Kevin!), thought I'd blog about the ones I've read to, "a. of all") hold me accountable to actually reading, and "b. of all") provide you -- whoever you are or aren't -- with book ideas, or not, as the case may be.
My first book of 2007 was a memoir -- Julie & Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, by Julie Powell. I received this book for Christmas from my sister-in-law Kelly who knows that I am an aspiring chef and absolute food nerd! Julie Powell is a would-be actress in NYC working as a secretary (or "government drone" as she calls it) and living in Queens with her husband. Approaching age 30, she is absolutely lost...no acting jobs, no accomplishments, nothing to look forward to...hopeless. The only things that bring her any joy are cooking, drinking vodka gimlets and watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. A strange sequence of events brings her in touch with the cooking classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1, by Julia Child, and Julie sets off to complete all 524 recipes in 365 days. And now the fun really starts!
The book details the year Julie spent cooking through Mastering the Art of French Cooking (or MtAoFC), the highs and lows, goods and bads. The successes and abyssmal failures. It is oftentimes laugh-out-loud funny...just as Kevin...he had to put up with me laughing. Julie's life is absolute drama...or, more to the point, Julie reacts to situations with absolute drama. She is witty, smart and a smart a$$. She is an oftentimes crass, serious liberal, dyed-in-the-wool Democrat, who thinks Republicans are sub-human, and is very vocal about her strongly held opinions. Even though our lives appear similar (Texas native, living in NYC, acting, cooking, approaching 30, etc.) we are more mirror images. She is all the things I am not, and I am all the things she hates.
Poignantly, there is a quote at the end of the book that Julie writes after finding out that Julia Child, whom she has never met, has died. She writes: "I have no claim over the woman at all, unless it's the claim one who has nearly drowned has over the person who pulled her out of the ocean." And I thought as I read that, "hmmm...much as I feel about Christ."
If you like food or cooking, this is a fantastic read. It makes you want to "cook dangerously" or at least with more daring then you have before. If you aren't necessarily a self-proclaimed food nerd, this is still a hilarious book about being thrust out of your everyday, normal, boring life into a adventure of your own making. If you can look past the rough language at times and the conservative bashing, I think you will find Julie a brash and funny ordinary person on a search for the extraordinary.
If you feel deprived because Texas is getting snow, read below about Malibu!! HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
ReplyDeleteThursday, January 18, 2007 · Last updated 6:29 a.m. PT
Rare SoCal snow brings traffic, delight
By DAISY NGUYEN
ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
LOS ANGELES -- A surprise storm dusted parts of Southern California with snow, snarling traffic but delighting many who raced to snap pictures and pack snowballs in the hour before it melted.
Interstate 5 remained closed in the mountains north of Los Angeles on Thursday morning, and jackknifed trucks were stuck in the snow, troopers said.
The fast-moving storm Wednesday was the latest blast from a cold snap that has gripped California for a week.
At least 18 years have passed since snow last fell in some areas of the Santa Monica Mountains, where beach-bound convertibles are more common than snowplows.
Snow fell at elevations well below 1,000 feet. At architect Doug Rucker's 1,700 feet-high studio in the Malibu mountains, snow was "bouncing like popcorn off my lawns," he said. An hour later, he said, it was "gray mush."
Jen Naylor, an L.A. native, rushed to her sister's house in Westwood, where the backyard was briefly coated in white.
Forecasters said that area was likely blanketed with irregularly shaped hailstones called graupel.
"This was the first time I made a snowman in L.A.," Naylor told the Los Angeles Times. "We used dried cranberry for the eyes and a baby carrot for the nose because it was a baby snowman."
Sounds viciously hilarious! After I finish "The Scarlet Thread" I may have to take a look. If you haven't read it, get ready to boo hoo.
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