My Life In France - Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme

If you know anything at all about Julia Child, you know she has a distinctive and awesome voice.  In this book, her voice is so clear you can actually hear it when you read - or at least, I can.  As the title indicates, the story is about her life in France, which is where she learned to cook and helped to write Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol 1 & 2.  I love this book, because her voice is so clear and because it's full of the details I love - where they lived, what they ate, who they spent time with, etc.  This book makes me want to live in France - especially France of the 50's.  Julia has a great sense of humor and adventure, and both come through loud and clear.  I actually read this book for the first time after reading Julie & Julia, and I love them both.  The movie is also great - I love Meryl Streep and think her Julia was dead on. 

The Probable Future - Alice Hoffman

The Probable Future tells the story of the Sparrow women - a family of women who all receive a "gift" on their 13th birthday.  The first Sparrow woman, Rebecca, no longer feels pain.  Some women can tell when someone is lying, some can run faster than a deer, some can walk through fire or stay under water for 20 minutes.  The youngest Sparrow, Stella, can see death - she can look at most people, and tell how and when they will die. 
I like Alice Hoffman because all of her books have an element of magic and an element of romance - it's not cheesy, in-your-face romance, it's subtle.  She also wrote Practical Magic, which is an excellent book and a good movie (although the book is better, as is usually the case). 

This book doesn't contain have much language or any sexual content, although most of her books do have some of one or the other, or both. 

BossyPants - Tina Fey

**A note before we begin - if you are uncomfortable with laughing so hard that you snort, cry, shoot liquids out your nose, fall on the floor or potentially wet yourself, this is not the book for you.**

I'll just go ahead and say it - Tina Fey is freaking hilarious.  I finished this book in the course of one evening - not unheard of for me, but not exactly common either.  I laughed so hard that I think I may have actually bruised internal organs.  If you love to laugh so hard it hurts, you must read this book.  There are some cuss words, and some pseudo-sexual content (she doesn't describe specific acts or anything like that, but she does make some sexual references). 
The book talks about her life, her family, her work on SNL, impersonating Sarah Palin, her work on 30 Rock and her "beauty tips and secrets".  All in all, a fab read - although the cover freaked me out a little.  I mean, why the giant man arms looking like they belong to you, Tina?  WHY?