My husband says I have weird tastes. As I mentioned in my review of the last Julia Child book I read, I have no obsession with food or France. I don't cook often. Yet, here I am, reading this extensive biography of Julia Child. I just don't like to (usually) limit myself!

My ideas of Julia Child were fairly vague till now, then formed a bit more after reading My Life in France, but now they're fairly solid, though probably not quite comprehensive yet.

The reason I say this is because this book, while very extensively covering Julia's life (what is it about Julia that we want to call her by her first name?), definitely displayed a certain - positive - bias. The author admits as much in his Sources and Acknowledgments section, wherein he says that he had "a powerful crush on her." I'm not sure if it was because of this, but at times I felt I wanted the other side of the story, such as with her rivalry with the "woman from Newton."

It was really interesting to learn about her political views as well - how she was liberal, fought to bring women into the spotlight, and supported Planned Parenthood. Yet, she was seen as a homophobe up till a certain point in her life, and she railed against things like the Environmental Defense Fund and Rachel Carson. Alas, there is no black and white in the world - things are pretty much always grey.

But overall, I enjoyed reading this and learning more about Julia's life. She was definitely an inspiring woman, quite a character, and someone without whom the US probably wouldn't be the way it is today.