"Julie & Julia" by Julie Powell was an excellent, entertaining read. In this book, the author tells her own story of a bit of mid-life she went through as she approached her 30th birthday. In an effort to make herself accomplish something she decides to take on the daunting task of cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child's "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" in 365 days. The book follows her ups and downs, successes and failures andeverything in between as she struggles to meet her goal by the deadline and ends up surprising even herself with her results and popularity.

I throughly enjoyed this book! It's written like one long, casual conversation with an old friend. Julie is charismatic and extremely relatable. She did an amazing job of conveying her feelings and on multiple occasions I knew *exactly* how she felt. She showed how perfectly human she was by not only sharing how she conquered difficult recipes but her epic failures as well. Her story was uplifting and inspirational. It really made me want to branch out and try some new recipes or find another way to challenge myself. She proved then an ordinary woman can really accomplish something when she puts her mind to it.