What do you do when you feel trapped in a dead-end job (a feeling I can relate to)? You could cook every recipe in Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking in 365 days. Sounds crazy? I’m not convinced it wasn’t, but Julie Powell did it.

Most of this book has the breathless, rushed, diary-like tones of blog writing, which makes sense because it originally started as a blog. But there is something more here that makes reading it worthwhile: some really nice interludes imagining Julia Child as she discovers her life’s calling; and the underlying message that sometimes you have to take odd twists and turns to get to happy. After all, it is all about the journey, isn’t it?

I could use a little of that spirited inspiration myself. If Julia Child can come to cooking at the ripe age of 37, and Julie Powell can find fame, fortune and a new life as a writer from a whimsical blog, then there’s hope for all of us.

http://simplycooking.wordpress.com