Just Read :: Julie and Julia, by Julie Powell

You'll get hungry (a year of French cooking includes desserts).  You'll get a little nauseous (deboning is not for the fainthearted).  You'll laugh out loud.  If you're a Republican, you'll probably get at least a little offended (but that's all I'm saying about her politics, and I'm not even approaching mine).  If you're a Democrat, you might still get offended.  Julie and Julia is not for the easily offended, but somehow it's a bestseller.  I guess I got into the trend late, but that's really just because I'm rather cheap about buying books (in spite of how much I love them) and it's only recently been marked down below ten dollars.

Julie and Julia is built on a paradoxical tenet: one year's worth of gourmet food is prepared in a kitchen in a cheap loft apartment in Long Island City by an untrained cook (who happens to be incredibly skilled in cooking).  They eat Domino's pizza when the meals go awry.  Julie Powell loves and hates the meals she creates.  Her metaphors are humorous and at times scandalous, and the connotations of every meal are discussed, mulled over, and often become remarkably amusing.

This is no great literary breakthrough, I realize, and a bit more chick lit than I usually go for, but it was entirely fun to read.  Besides, after three years as an English major and before six to eight years as a graduate English graduate student, I think a fun read is entirely permissible.

Available for purchase here.