This week we’re celebrating what would be the 100th birthday of Julia Child who was born on August 15, 1912 and died 8 years ago today on August 13, 2004.

Since it’s been so hot and I’ve had no desire to go outside in the late afternoons, this weekend was the perfect time to read the new biography that was released last week, Dearie: The Remarkable Life of Julia Child by Bob Spitz.  It covers her entire life (unlike other books I’ve read that focused on the cookbook years) and I have a new appreciation for how Julia Child managed to reinvent herself and just how much of a pioneer she really was.  A good read.  Notes: The photographs don’t come across well on the Kindle edition (they never do) but the author has most of them on his website.  Also, about 40% of the book is notes, bibliography, and index so it’s not as hefty a read as it appears on first glance.

Other Julia Child books that I’ve enjoyed in the past:

My Life in France by Paul Prud’Homme and Julia Child

As Always, Julia: The Letters of Julia Child and Avis DeVoto by Joan Reardon

The Julia Child portion of Julie & Julia is fun.  If they ever re-release the movie with just the Meryl Streep/Julia Child portion, I’d like it even more.

Our heat wave has yet to break so cooking some of her recipes may or may not happen but we will be devoting our prose (& heat wave relief) to Julia Child this week.