Book Review: "It Ain't All About the Cookin' "

Paula Deen: It Ain't All About the Cookin', Paul Deen and Sherry Suib Cohen
originally published: 2007
finished reading: 4 December 2011

I love biographies, always have. I'm in the middle of reading another non-fiction book that's really bringing me down and needed something to pick me up. Paula Deen fit that bill. I loved that the book sounded the way she sounds on her show (and I've been dropping the "g" off all my words for the last several days). She pulled no punches when talking about her life - the times when she was mean to her boys, her failings in her first marriage, approaching her step-children - it's all there. Instead of making me judge her, these revelations made me like her even more.

I found Deen's book inspirational in a way that a lot of self-help books are not. This woman struggled a lot with the deaths of her parents, being married very young, having little to no money, and yet she came out on top. This is the American dream. A woman with very few options took the bull by the horns, gritted her teeth, and built herself up step-by-step. She pulled her family up with her and they're all still going strong. I'm looking forward to seeing Paula Deen cookin' with butter for a very long time.

How is this related to creativity? Here's the thing, Paul Deen picked herself up and was her own best advocate. When she finally found the thing she loved to do best, that's what she threw herself into. That she's become an author, TV host, product spokeswoman, multi-millionaire is all the result of finding her bliss. If that's not creative thinking, I don't know what is.


Edited to add:
I actually wrote this post yesterday. Then discovered that the batteries in the trackpad had died. Would you believe we were completely out of AA batteries? Why did I throw away all the corded mice? I couldn't post until I got new batteries and re-connected the dang wireless trackpad. It still counts, right?