My Life in France

She's got a lot of zingers in here, but at heart, this book succeeds because of its joyous but simple recounting of several food-filled decades.

What I wasn't expecting was to be struck by political commentary in a food memoir. Which is to say Julia ain't no socialist, but there's familiarity in the struggles she had with her conservative father and various folks scared of la différence.

Still, Julia child had some moolah, and while travel is certainly life-expanding, her financial and education privilege does put a damper on some of my aspirational admiration. I will absolutely cook her sole meunière recipe within the month, but reading about her several houses, USIS adjacent or otherwise does put me into that deep millennial/climate-change depression where I imagine international travel and home ownership are generally drifting out of reach.

...also, I love reading books by and about women who did not have children.