A combination of autobiography, armchair travel, restaurant and cuisine commentary, and love story, MY LIFE IN FRANCE is a perfectly delightful book - not only a highly entertaining read, it's also charming glimpse into the personality of one of the most interesting Americans ever born.

Child grew up as a daughter of wealth and privilege in Southern California and being too tall for the military as WWII began to rage in Europe and the Pacific, she joined the forerunner of the CIA. Paul Child was also an intelligence officer and returned to diplomatic service after the war. They met during their wartime service and in the late 1940's they moved to Europe where Paul was employed in various diplomatic assignments for the next dozen years.

Prepared with the assistance of her nephew, Julia Child's memoir covers her determination to learn to cook, her incredible perfectionism as she worked on her first published cookbook, her many dinner parties, her career as a popular PBS host, her travels, her adjustment to a life of celebrity, - and threaded through every story and shining from every page - her lifelong infatuation with, love for, and devotion to her husband. We should all be so lucky.

REVIEWED BY WOODSTOCK