Searching for my own inner Julia

It all began with a friend telling me that she was listening to My Life in France, which is Julia Child's account of, well, her life in France. Basically she tells the story of meeting her husband Paul, how they ended up moving to France, how she began taking cooking lessons at Le Cordon Bleu, and then how she ended up creating and working on the famous Mastering the Art of French Cooking. I began to read it as well and quickly became hooked. Julia is a great narrator, with calling her cooking lessons "cookery teachery" and the whole cookbook project "cookery bookery," she has this ability to be so cute (despite the fact that she's like 9 feet tall).

At work in the city, everyone was nosy about what other people were reading. So of course, a friend noticed I was reading Julia Child's book and mentioned a book she had just finished reading called Julie and Julia. This book is about a 29-year-old woman, who is having a personal crisis approaching her 30th birthday. Half inspired by Child's famous cookbook and her husband's suggestions, Julie Powell devotes the next 365 days to cooking all of the recipes in MTAOFC, capturing all of her triumphs and frustrations in a blog. Within this year, she somehow finds herself, finds sanity, and accomplishes her goal, while also being on TV, in the NY Times, and landing a book deal and after, a movie deal starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. I picked up the book, only got about halfway through, and had to return it to the library. I recently just got it out from the library again and devoured it whole.

Yesterday, while perusing the "Buy 1, get 1 1/2 off" books at Border's, I noticed a book called The Sharper the Knife, the Less You Cry. Of course, it is a woman's account of how after losing her job in Corporate America, she cashes in her savings, moves to Paris to attend Le Cordon Bleu, and not only finds herself, she finds love.

OK.

I don't believe in signs. I believe in God and his plan for me. HOWEVER...I'm single, hating my job, and love to cook. Translation? Keep reading these books! I've been to Paris twice already, have no interest in learning French and meeting some French guy and having to stay over there? Aucun merci (French for 'no thanks'). I'm still counting on meeting my darling, fully British Nigel (who loves the States and whose parents still live in the UK) -- and Frenchy would just get in the way. I can live vicariously through others and cook here. Done and done.

And P.S. Does anyone know of any other books like these? Clearly I'm going through a phase...