Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment ... (ISBN 1594831068)

Amazon.com Review:
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

Julie is a whiner who doesn't like to cook!:
I only read 2/3 of this "memoir." Before reading I was intrigued by the concept - the author cooking the recipes of Julia Child. Sounds like potential for amusement. I agree with many of the negative reviews below that this is a self-absorbed, whiney author. I found each chapter repetitive - drinking her gimlets, not having sex with her husband, her try-too-hard-to-be-eccentric friends. This book is a case in point that a popular-blog-does-not-a well-written, well-conceived-book-make. I would recommend Ruth Reichl's memoirs or Peter Mayle's tales of French food and experiences. Or Julia Child's "My Life in France" (haven't read that one, but it has *got* to be better than this.) This book is a poor choice for a reader, a foodie or anyone who abhors whining.

Maggots!:
This book has travelled with me from Arizona to PA, to TX, to NOLA, to PA, to NOLA, to GA, to PA, back to GA and finally back to PA again.... I have been "in the middle" of this book for almost two years. It is one of those books that never really grabs you. Some books grab you and pull you in and you can't put the book down, however, I put this book down many timees. Julie & Julia is a very boring and unintelligible memoir to Julia Child (maybe) but more so a self-involved journaling/rambling of a person battling depression, cooking obsession and the beating of the "biological clock." Her half-a**ed attempts at recreating Julia Child's recipes left me with a bad taste in my mouth. The author attempts to (and somewhat accomplishes) the re-creation of every recipe in Julia Childs renown cookbook (524 recipes) (Mastering the Art of French Cooking) in one year. She cooks things such as brains, liver, kidneys, marrow. The only humorous memory was that her Mother always said that kidneys always "tasted like piss." however some that the author cooked did not taste like piss, however her "piss smelled like kidneys." That was such a crude remark (and I am no priss mind you) I could not help but laugh. The author wrote a blog and this book really made small mention of her blog, small mention of other characters. The only characters truly developed in this book is the author and her husband Eric. But even his character is truly never examined, just from the author's perspective minimally. This book was albout the author. My final impression of the book was that the author wants/wanted to have a baby, had to do something to occupy her mind besides thinking about having a baby or not being able to have a baby and the personal neglect in her kitchen can't help but be seen as depression. I'm sorry but little flies flying around the author's kitchen constantly and finally towards the end of the book they discover maggots under their dish drying tray. They were very neglectful of the dishes, left them piled in the sink frequently and I'm sorry but this book was extremely bad and further, I could not imagine eathing ANYTHING from this author's kitchen knowing the lack of care taken to have a clean kitchen. She put forth about as much energy in writing a book.

Made me a fast reader again!:
A once avid reader, I'm finding myself getting slower and slower, caring less and less about what's happening in books that I've chosen to read. Julie & Julia brought me back. I tore through this book. I couldn't wait to see what was going to happen next. To me, it was her dysfunctional life and her friends' supporting roles that kept it so entertaining. There were a few key paragraphs that I found myself typing in IM chats to my friends because the situations were so similar to our lives. Great book!

Enjoy it for what it is...:
At first I had a hard time connecting with the book, but after a while Julie drew me in with her self-deprecating sense of humor. She's pretty honest about her imperfections and her disillusion with her professional accomplishments. This project was a way for her to reclaim her life. I loved how she hung in there and vividly describes both her successes and failures in the kitchen. Can't wait to see the movie next year!

Delicious, dark and just what I was in the mood for:
My mother jokes that my mexican casserole is so bad that my father shuffled off his mortal coil to avoid having to eat it again, and I don't even like French cooking -- too fussy and too creamy. But I liked watching Julia Child as a kid, and found this book delicious -- dark, funny, idiosyncratic and endearingly messy. In an odd way, a bit like comfort food, if you find aspic, obsession and kitchen chaos comforting. I sure do.