Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child

Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz is a humdinger of a book. For one thing, it's huge. The text goes on to 534 pages and it's so full of fascinating tidbits about the queen of cooking, Julia Child.

In case you've lived in a cave your whole life, you know that Julia Child co-wrote Mastering the Art of French Cooking. This book lets us peek into her life up till that time to see how she came to do such a thing, since Julia McWilliams came from a privileged background and was no cook. 

Her college years, work history as it were, service during World War II all help paint the picture of this larger than life woman who stood 6 foot 3 inches. I told you it was a humdinger, and so was she.


If you like memoirs, biographies, and generally nosing around in other people's lives, read this book. I liked it so much I even watched a few shows from her first season of The French Chef (Boeuf Bourguignon and The French Omelette). I even made an omelette the Julia way and it mostly worked. I cooked mine longer because I don't care for any sort of softness to my eggs, but it was delicious!
 

Book Read: Dearie:  The Remarkable Life of Julia Child

Author:  Bob Spitz

ISBN: 978-0-307-27222-5

Wolf: The Lives of Jack London by James L. Haley

I just, minutes ago, finished reading Wolf, a biography of Jack London. I had read some of this book at Learning Ally, but when you read a book while recording it, you have a lot of other things to think about so paying close attention to the content can come in a distant last.

I had taken the dust jacket off the book when I started reading it so hadn't been seeing the title. I just realized when I typed it (Wolf:  The Lives of Jack London) that each chapter covered one of London's lives:  The Work Beast, The Oyster Pirate, The Seal Hunter, The Tramp, The Student, The Prospector, The Aspiring Writer, The Muckraker, The War Correspondent, The Lover, The Celebrity, The Sailor, The Rancher, and finally The Jade.

Since none of us is just one thing at one time, there was some overlap in learning about various facets of his life, but Haley did a good job of telling the story of London's life chronologically. I have to admit I haven't read any of Jack London's books, but reading a writer's biography or autobiography without having read their writing isn't new to me. I love biographies!

 
Book Read: Wolf:  The Lives of Jack London

Author:  James L. Haley

ISBN:  978-0-465-00478-2