Julie & Julia

I recently finished reading Julie & Julia by Julie Powell, a wonderfully amusing memoir of a woman who embarks on a mission to cook every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in the year before she turns 30. She lives in a rundown Queens apartment, works a dead-end government job, and has hit a wall in terms of her life. From her first success with Potage Parmentier (potato soup) to her final masterpiece, Reine de Saba (chocolate cake), Powell attacks every recipe with fervor, learning how to extract marrow from beef bones, searching the city far and wide for obscure ingredients, and generally, becoming comfortable with herself and her capabilities.

During her mission, Powell updated a growing legion of fans via her highly successful blog, The Julie/Julia Project (see link at right to her follow-up, "What Could Happen?"). On learning of Child's death in 2004, Powell commented in her blog,

"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."

Powell is now in the middle of a media tour to promote her book, which has recently been released in paperback.