Play Book Tag discussion

Julie Powell is almost thirty, may have a tough time having children and is working in an uninspiring job as a receptionist when she decides to cook all 524 recipes from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking Volume 1 in a year. She also starts a blog to follow her project and over time gains followers and media attention. I thought this book would be more about cooking than it actually was. It's more about Julie's life and marriage with some struggles over cooking recipes thrown in. There is also very little about Julia Child if that's who you're interested in you'll need a different book. I found myself not liking Julie very much in places which brought down my rating. It's also never really clear why she decided to do this in the first place. I could never eat some of the things she makes, such as brains, but the book does make me feel like cooking more, though not French cuisine.

I am sorry this one wasn't as good as you had hoped. The movie version with Meryl Streep seems to be much more enjoyable for some readers (myself included).

My Life in France is quite interesting, if you haven't read it before. I actually chose to read it, instead of Julie & Julie.

I agree 100% with everything Lisa A said, haha. I really liked the movie, and also read My Life in France instead of this one.

Did do to movie

I saw the movie and didn't read the book, a rare thing for me.

My husband and I adored the movie and I dare add we have seen it more than once.

I love the movie, never read the book.

I loved the movie. Read Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen: How One Girl Risked Her Marriage, Her Job, and Her Sanity to Master the Art of Living. I was said that the marriage wasn't as supportive as in the movie. I may try My Life in France.

Well, the movie combined both Julia Child's My Life in France with Julie Powell's memoir. Probably because so many readers of Julie's memoir had indicated they didn't like her.

I read them both and rated them the same - 3.5 stars (good). I did comment that both books might be more appealing to a foodie (which I am not!).

I thought the movie was better than both books. :-)

Powell's book came out not long before Julia Child died. Apparently Child was not very impressed with the blog. This is what her agent said, "Flinging around four-letter words when cooking isn't attractive, to me or Julia. She didn't want to endorse it. What came through on the blog was somebody who was doing it almost for the sake of a stunt. She would never really describe the end results, how delicious it was, and what she learned. Julia didn't like what she called 'the flimsies.' She didn't suffer fools, if you know what I mean."[6]

I wasn't that impressed with Powell when I read the book, although I think some of it was funny.. I was even less impressed with her when I saw her T.V. interviews. She was rude and crude. My Life in France was much better.

Sorry to hear this as I’m pretty sure I picked up the book at a bargain table. Much sorrier to her that Powell doesn’t seem to be a nice person.

I saw the movie (twice — it was recently on, so I indulged). Might skip J&J and just read My Life in France.