I liked it. I found her honesty and flippant style of writing to be fun and funny. She is unconventional and inspiring in a weird sort of way. There are too many harsh critics out there who are afraid and who vote for censorship. And I love that Julie Powell is just the type of person who doesn't give a sh*t anyhow. ( )

p. 67 Julie's persona is that of a self-centered snotty snob. And she cheats almost immediately, not learning what beef suet is, or chicken gizzard, for examples, until after the recipe is checked off as done, sans those items. And there's almost nothing of Julia.

I still have no interest in Julia's books.
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Dnf after one more attempt. Nov. 2021

I haven't seen the movie in ages but I definitely liked it more than the book. ( )

Originally published in 2005. I have to say the movie does not capture the character of Julie very well at all as written in the book. But, what a fantastic read! Julie writes like she talks, and it's the raw truth complete with "f" words throughout and lots of humor. Some parts had me cracking up, and some parts of it reminded me of myself like her over sensitivity to her blog and her out bursts and crying...my gosh if that's not me made over...lol. I do understand her purpose in creating this challenge for herself. I wish I would have thought of it first.

Now the movie portrayed a cluttered home, when in reality it was plum filthy and disgusting with maggots in the sink drain, globs of butter on the fridge, meat grease splattered across the walls and at one point they were inundated with a million flies in the kitchen. I guess they didn't always have time to clean up with them both working and her cooking up those difficult and time consuming French meals. Most of the time they weren't eating dinner until around 10 or 11:00 pm at night. If you enjoyed the movie, then you've got to read the book. It's so much better!!! ( )

Julie and Julia by Julie Powell is an incredibly written book... It just wasn't for me!

This is one of those books that seemed like something going in but I came out seeing something completely different. I can't even say it was my expectations being too high because I went in knowing I was going to read about a woman trying all of Julia Child's recipes. Problem? It was a lot more about Julie's life and struggles than the cooking. Yes, her experiences and culinary journey is interesting, but the book wasn't what I wanted. I wanted to hear her make the recipes and read the struggles or when she had to use a different ingredient. I didn't really want to read about her marriage troubles.

Does that make this a bad book? Absolutely not! I think this book is phenomenal and other readers will love it. But for me? It was a flop. I just couldn't get into it, I had to force my way through, and I almost DNF-ed five separate times. It wasn't a book that kept me as a reader engaged. And that's completely okay! Not every book is for every reader.

I still recommend this book for other readers, whole heartedly. I can't say this book is bad! With this book, I think the film adaptation is what is going to win for me. In this occasion, that seems like the kind of medium that will work better with my reading/viewing preferences.

One out of five stars. ( )

I thought it was funny and real and interesting. Don't expect Powell to go into details about the recipes (although there are times when she's all about "deglazing the pan and reducing the sauce while peeling and boiling the artichoke leaves..."). She's a kind of snarky writer, which I appreciate, and (let's be real here....) inordinately obsessed with a crazy idea to begin with. That's what makes the book good in my opinion. I see other reviews that criticize her use of vulgarity and seeming lack-of-focus on making the food. But I think we are getting a real life look at someone who embarked on a crazy idea during a low point in her life. And that's the POINT of the book....to share her experience, as it happens. I'm not sure it's 5 stars, but close. And, I enjoyed the movie before I read the book, but I think the movie is a fine representation of the tone of the book. ( )

I finished Julie & Julia: 365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen by Julie Powellin a record setting THREE DAYS.

I haven't read a book that quickly in ages. Consider that it took me more than three weeks to finish the ghastly On the Road. But, of course, Julie & Julia isn't on my list of THE great modern books of our time. Hence, I actually enjoyed it.

Julie Powell was a blogger before she was an author, and it really shows. I can actually tell which parts of the book derive from her blog. The very best bits.

Her voice is incomparable and fabulous. Her sense of humor is divine. Her organizational skills . . .well, those could be refined a bit, but frankly if you like reading blogs you won't be bothered in the least by the quick changes of topic and the stream of consciousness writing.

Julie is essentially cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and blogging it. In a year. And the result of that process is that she finds true joy.

My favorite chapter was when Julie tackles cooking aspic. Frankly, I didn't really know what aspic was before this book, but it is essentially gelatin. Not as in Jello. More as in calves hoof gelatin. It sounds absolutely disgusting and inedible and funny as hell.

Julie is also blissfully human. She obviously has cooking skills, but she makes lots of mistakes. When I make a cooking error, I order take out. Julie actually tries again. And again. Earning my utmost admiration. She also sucks as a housekeeper thereby managing to make me feel good about my own very minimal housecleaning skills.

All in all, if you like reading blogs, I'm quite sure you'll like reading this book. And, if you like food, you'll LOVE this book.

Tension/Engaging: 4 star
Language: 2 stars
Emotion: 4 star
Character Development: 3 star
Dialogue: 4 stars
Worth the Effort: 5 star
Social commentary/theme: 3 stars
Originality: 4 stars ( )

Unlike many of the other reviewers here, I really enjoyed Ms. Powell's sense of humor which today is rare with new authors. I also felt the book had MUCH more to offer with respect to the reality of her negligible cooking skills as compared to Julia Child. However, for those of us that have read Julia Child's book, we're quite aware her cooking skill took years to develop. Since I'm a big Meryl Streep and Stanley Tucci fan I own the DVD of the movie and have to say it would have been far better were they to have shown Julie Powell as the incompetent cook she really was; it would have been MUCH funnier too. To me writing is art and like any art, the appeal varies from person to person. ( )

I am not a person who feels compelled to finish every book I start to read, and I almost gave up on this one at various times. I did not really like the character of Julie and the book seemed to be going nowhere. But this book was saved by the ending. I don't want to spoil it by saying more. It's worth reading. However it is also one of those rare instances where the movie is better than the book, largely because Julia Child is almost absent from the book and Meryl Streep is so good as Julia Child in the movie. ( )

I wasn't as impressed with this book as I had hoped I would be. I'm still happy I read it, as I'm looking forward to seeing the movie adaptation and I typically prefer to read the books first. But the tone of Julie in this book is a harsh one and it doesn't mesh well with my personal preferences. It was okay. At best. ( )

Very cute, worth the read even if you saw the movie. ( )

Julie Powell is just your average, bored secretary in New York City. As she approaches her thirtieth birthday, she's feeling extra dumpy. Faced with few prospects and a mother nagging her about her biological clock, Julie is looking for a change. But what?

One night after an especially soul crushing day, Julie whips up a simple potato soup that just happens to be Julia Child's recipe for Potage Parmentier. And just like that, Julie and her husband come up with an idea. Why not cook her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, and Simone Beck and blog about it? It was a win-win idea. Not only would they get to eat French food, but Julie would learn cooking techniques, and be able to write about it. And so, the Julie/Julia Project was born.

But as with Potage Parmentier, the project wasn't as easy as it sounded. Cooking 524 recipes in one year would prove to be hard work. Julie worked full-time and ingredients were sometimes hard to find. Little by little, people began to read her blog. And despite her use of snarky, foul language, brutal honesty, and some mean spirited comments, Julie began to learn. Not only did she learn about French food, but through taking chances and trying new things, like eggs, she began to grow as a person. The result is humorous a book about being yourself and perseverance.

The Bottom Line: Although the concept is interesting, Powell's liberal use of foul language and whining was difficult to read through. As she writes about herself, her friends, and her family, Powell seems to have no filter. She complains throughout the book; and yet there are a few interesting observations and, of course, tantalizing tidbits about Julia and Paul Child before Julia became a celebrity chef.

At the time she worked her way through Julia Child's recipes, blogging was new and perhaps being able to connect with readers near and far was a novelty. Stories about Powell's friends make the book mildly entertaining. Was the Julie/Julia Project a stunt or was Powell serious about French cooking? No one can say, but the author. Some fans of culinary biographies might enjoy this.

For the complete review including Book Club Notes, please visit the Mini Book Bytes Book Review Blog. ( )

I read this book around the same time the movie came out - because the movie was so funny!!

I know I shouldn't laugh, but watching Julie try to cook was hilarious at times.

And Meryl Streep's version of Julia. That was funny as well. Her accent was hilarious.

The book had some wonderful recipes in it - and some not so good recipes.

I absolutely detest escargot, and mushrooms and sushi... ( )

Adult nonfiction. Read by the author, pretty well done. ( )

A rare find: the movie adaptation far surpasses the book. The movie is charming. The book is occasionally funny and often times revolting. ( )

I found this book quite interesting- I thought I would find it boring. the description of the dishes is fantastic and really made me want to cook them myself. ( )

So, I watched the movie and really liked it, esp the Julia Child parts -- come to find out that the book barely deals with any of Julia's experiences but instead focuses almost exclusively on the cooking adventures of Julie Powell. And while the project itself is a great idea, what really got on my nerves towards the end of the book was the existential whining -- as if this cooking project was the only way for Julie to make sense of her life. The only redeeming feature for me was the work experience at the government agency dealing with Sept 11 aftermath and the potential irony to master French Cooking of all cuisines at a time like that. ( )

This book was a bit deceptive, in that it was not so much about the cooking and following of Julia Child's recipes (which is why I wanted to read the book in the first place). But more about her friend's sexual escapades. A bit odd in that sense. However, there were some entertaining bits like when she gets to the section of the cookbook that covers aspic, and how she attempts to lure her friends to eat said delicacy. A fun read I suppose, but not at all what I was expecting. ( )

What I liked about this book was 1) the topic revolved around cooking--one of my favorite pass times, 2) it turned me on to Julia Child (I had no idea she was so interesting), and 3) I laughed out loud a few times. The author really had some funny points/stories in the book.

Other than that, the book was OK. I wouldn't tell my friends that they HAVE to read this book, but if they mentioned they were going to read it I wouldn't really try to deter them from it. It was OK.

I really had trouble feeling for the main character. I could relate to her in some ways, but for the most part, I couldn't feel empathetic towards her "strife."

I don't think she ever really wrapped up well enough for me what this journey gained her. I think that's the piece I was missing. What was the point? She gained more confidence...maybe that was it. I don't know. In any case, I found the pieces about Julia Child more interesting than the story Julie Powell had to tell. And, since Julie loves Julia Child so much, maybe she would feel that her book then accomplished what she wanted...?

(If Goodreads allowed half-stars I would have given this one a 2 1/2.) ( )

Good, but a little self-absorbed. Then again, it is based off of a blog. ( )

Throughout reading Julie & Julia, I found Julie pretty consistently awful. Her preoccupation with and constant discussing of sex is off-putting and uncomfortable for me. The way she talks about mental illness and the mentally ill is disturbing and offensive. Her flippant comparisons of her everyday life to historical genocides and wars is jarring and also unendearing. Her approach to kitchen sanitation made me gag a lot while reading. And from the way she herself describes her relationships with her friends and husband, I cannot for the life of me figure out why they put up with her. Especially before she became a source of delicious French food.

All of that said, this book is a really interesting look back at early internet and blog culture, and the general atmosphere and culture of the early 2000s.The writing is good. And the story itself is interesting and engaging enough to make it worth a read despite my dislike of the narrator-author, which is quite a trick for a memoir. ( )

Read it and found it lacking anything new and interesting. I saw the movie; if a fellow high school drama club member wasn't in the movie I'd have skipped it. ( )

I never thought I’d have any interest in this book or movie, but one day it was on TV and I watched it and really liked it. So when I found the book, I figured, well, the book is always better than the movie, I grabbed it. Sadly, my presumption turned out to be wrong. I did not like the book better. I liked it considerably less.

In the movie, I much preferred the sections on Julia Child, who was considerably more interesting that I would have ever thought from just watching her TV show a few times. A lot of time was given to her story. In the book, Julie, quite naturally, gives more time to her own story- that she would undertake making every single recipe in Julia’s foundational cookbook in the space of one year. She starts a blog to tell the world about this project, and it becomes a huge hit. A book deal appears, and it’s optioned for a movie. This book isn’t just a collection of her blog entries; she’s looking back from the end of the project and going through the memories.

I should have liked it. She can be witty, with the kind of self-deprecating humor that grabs me. She swears almost as much as I do. I get obsessed with food at times. But I disliked her continual complaining about the same things over and over again (note to self: stop doing that! I’m sure NO one likes that!), given that she was living a fairly privileged life. The things she says and thinks about her perfectly good, supportive husband are nasty. Her story telling is not linear in the least. I just got tired of her, and wanted the book to end. ( )

With the humor of Bridget Jones and the vitality of Augusten Burroughs, Julie Powell recounts how she conquered every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and saved her soul!

Julie Powell is 30-years-old, living in a rundown apartment in Queens and working at a soul-sucking secretarial job that’s going nowhere. She needs something to break the monotony of her life, and she invents a deranged assignment. She will take her mother's dog-eared copy of Julia Child's 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and she will cook all 524 recipes. In the span of one year.

At first she thinks it will be easy. But as she moves from the simple Potage Parmentier (potato soup) into the more complicated realm of aspics and crépes, she realizes there’s more to Mastering the Art of French Cooking than meets the eye. With Julia’s stern warble always in her ear, Julie haunts the local butcher, buying kidneys and sweetbreads. She sends her husband on late-night runs for yet more butter and rarely serves dinner before midnight. She discovers how to mold the perfect Orange Bavarian, the trick to extracting marrow from bone, and the intense pleasure of eating liver.

And somewhere along the line she realizes she has turned her kitchen into a miracle of creation and cuisine. She has eclipsed her life’s ordinariness through spectacular humor, hysteria, and perseverance. ( )

Very good book -- I loved all the descriptions of her cooking various recipes. If you like to cook this is a good book for you. ( )