Julie & Julia II

There's nothing like reading about a small New York apartment whose plumbing is unreliable to make one grateful for living out in spacious Illinois with her little patch of yard, however weedy. We could park three cars in our driveway and four in front of our house if we wanted! Even Sarah Jessica Parker can't do that in NYC.

Although I've been a vegetarian for almost 16 years, I don't mind reading about cooking with meat. In fact, in the case of Nigel Slater, you could say I love reading about cooking with meat. But there have been some rough parts in this book for me. Ms. Powell kills lobsters in her kitchen. Slowly. One she cuts up while it is still alive. And they way she writes about liver gives me the chills.

The in-between chapters, which are fiction about Julia Child and her husband, are surprisingly different from the rest of the book. There, her writing is more graceful as she presents a gregarious and forgiving Julia Child, one that I would follow down the path of many more chapters. I might have to see the movie after all, if only for Meryl Streep's portrayal of Child.