Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously
by Julie Powell
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Book Summary Information
Author: Julie PowellEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2006-09-07
ISBN: 0316013269
Number of pages: 336
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780316013260
- Notes: 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously
Book Review: If I could give it Zero stars, I would...
Summary: 1 Stars
Stupid book. And I don't say that lightly, because in my house, "stupid" is the ultimate put-down and not allowed to be used except in extreme circumstances.
I know this book won all kinds of "Readers Pick" awards, and was a best seller and such, but I hated it. As a matter of fact, I didn't finish it. I was tempted to put it down about 15 times, but I kept slogging away at it because (a) I was sick and had nothing else to read and (b) I kept HOPING it would get better. It didn't. Worse if possible. I finally put it down forever about 5 chapters from the end. I just couldn't take any more.
I WANTED to like this book. I was excited to have it to read. I was CERTAIN I'd like it. The whole premise - cooking every recipe in The Modern Art of French Cooking in one year - what a cool idea! What a great memoir it should be!
The problem is - the book is about 30% cooking (and not even cooking well; mostly she subbed and shortcutted her way through it), and the rest a whiney, B****y rant by a spoiled rotten, self-centered, snotty little brat. Her constant snarking about Republicans - and not even a clever, witty snark, just ignorant, lame insults - were really, really annoying. I have no real love for Republicans either, but I don't lump them all together and tar them with feathers for simply existing the way she does.
I hate the way she treats and talks to her husband, I really didn't need to or want to know about her youthful experiences with her parents copy of The Joy of Sex (what the H*** does that have to do with Julia Child???) or her friends sex lives (again - that has what to do with the subject at hand?). And I really, really, REALLY hated her for her gross insensitivity toward the families of the 9/11 victims. Maybe she thought those insensitive things; fine, we all think mean things. But you don't write them down and put them out there for all the world to see and think you are some font of cleverness for it, because you aren't - you are just insensitive and mean.
What's worse than the 70% of the book completely related to her and her alone, is that the cooking-experience-part (which was SUPPOSED to be the main thrust of the book, but wasn't) was so unsatisfying. I admit, a few times she TRIED to make a recipe as written. But a lot of times she just skipped parts or subbed or whatever. Isn't this experience supposed to be trying to cook all of those recipes, as written? Why was that less than half the book and couldn't she have put a bit more effort into it? I was impressed she tried to make her own gelatin. That was cool to read. But those tiny snippets of interesting commentary were so few and far between that it drove me crazy.
Upon reflection, I think this book depends entirely on whether or not you LIKE this woman. If you like her, you will like the book. If you don't like her, you will hate it. Because the main thrust of the book is HER and her personality. There's not enough Julia in it to make it interesting to those of us who enjoy Julia Child.
Summary of Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously
Now in paperback-the format in which it's destined to become a reading group favorite-the most heralded and hilarious memoir of recent years:Nearing 30 and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, Julie Powell reclaims her life by cooking every single recipe in Julia Child's legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking in the span of one year. It's a hysterical, inconceivable redemptive journey - life rediscovered through aspics, calves' brains and crème brûlée.
The bestselling memoir that's "irresistible....A kind of Bridget Jones meets The French Chef" (Philadelphia Inquirer) is now a major motion picture directed by Nora Ephron, starring Amy Adams as Julie and Meryl Streep as Julia, the film Julie & Julia will be released by Sony Pictures on August 7, 2009.
Julie & Julia is the story of Julie Powell's attempt to revitalize her marriage, restore her ambition, and save her soul by cooking all 524 recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Volume I, in a period of 365 days. The result is a masterful medley of Bridget Jones' Diary meets Like Water for Chocolate, mixed with a healthy dose of original wit, warmth, and inspiration that sets this memoir apart from most tales of personal redemption.
When we first meet Julie, she's a frustrated temp-to-perm secretary who slaves away at a thankless job, only to return to an equally demoralizing apartment in the outer boroughs of Manhattan each evening. At the urging of Eric, her devoted and slightly geeky husband, she decides to start a blog that will chronicle what she dubs the "Julie/Julia Project." What follows is a year of butter-drenched meals that will both necessitate the wearing of an unbearably uncomfortable girdle on the hottest night of the year, as well as the realization that life is what you make of it and joy is not as impossible a quest as it may seem, even when it's -10 degrees out and your pipes are frozen.
Powell is a natural when it comes to connecting with her readers, which is probably why her blog generated so much buzz, both from readers and media alike. And while her self-deprecating sense of humor can sometimes dissolve into whininess, she never really loses her edge, or her sense of purpose. Even on day 365, she's working her way through Mayonnaise Collee and ending the evening "back exactly where we started--just Eric and me, three cats and Buffy...sitting on a couch in the outer boroughs, eating, with Julia chortling alongside us...."
Inspired and encouraging, Julie and Julia is a unique opportunity to join one woman's attempt to change her life, and have a laugh, or ten, along the way. --Gisele Toueg
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