Talk about the recipes wraps around a filling made up of Julie's life - family, friends, and her occasional epiphanies. From realizing that simple is not the same as easy to her final understanding that the real attraction of the book isn't the food, it's the fragrance of possibilities coming from its pages.

In between is a lot of humor, swearing, whining, chaos, emotional upheaval, and food. I don't often laugh out loud while reading, but this got me going three times - once with a warped sense of humor description of trussed chickens, another time over a conversation with the woman who runs the best S&M dungeon in lower Manhattan, and all through the lobsters. It's not for the faint of heart. There's marrow and offal, Julie swears constantly, and conversations include a friend's proposal to make it rich designing furniture for sex. While Julie will make you alternatively want to shake her, hug her, and scream at her to can the self-pity or whining for 2 freaking seconds in a row. But if you are open enough to possibilities (see above) to not let that get in the way, it's a great read. I just devoured it.

The author's claim to not be a very good actress doesn't hold true, as she reads very effectively - with emotional range and clear differentiation between characters. Highly recommended.