Tag: creativity

Making you hungry since the 1960s

My Life in France is Julia Child’s memoir and it made me endlessly hungry.

It really is her memoir of her time in France and of how she came to write Mastering the Art of French Cooking, volumes 1 & 2. It is full of her passion for food, a thing she came to late in life. As a result, she worked all the harder at it, creating what was one of the classic cookbooks. It took more than a decade to complete!

Her passion and total dedication to her subject – food – is as interesting as the Beastie Boys’ passion and dedication to music. The fervor comes through the writing, the way she would recreate recipes over and over to make sure they worked, her dedication to writing everything clearly, the way the recipes were tested by others before they were ever published.

I wanted a good fish meunière by the time I was done. Recommended.

The Beastie Boys Book is a delight

I was never more than a casual, occasional Beastie Boys fan. I listened to this audio book for two reasons: I had a free book on Audible and Linda Holmes enthusiastically recommended it.

The Beastie Boys Book is a history of the band as told by its two remaining members, Michael Diamond (Mike D) and Adam Horowitz (Adroc). It captures their passion and enthusiasm for both New York City in the late 70s/early 80s and music. Their story is a delight to listen to. It took longer than expected to listen to the book because I kept wandering off to Spotify to listen to music I hadn’t heard in awhile or hadn’t heard before. (Someone, bless their heart, made a playlist of all the songs and artists mentioned in the book.)

Specifically, I’d recommend listening to the audiobook. Why? There are a ton of voices, not just theirs, people like Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, and so, so many others read chapters. Not surprisingly, a hugely successful band knows how to put together a quality audio product.

I can’t stop, won’t stop recommending the Beastie Boys Book to everyone in my real life, so here’s me, continuing to do it on the internet.