Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously
Book Review: Great!
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book. It's my kind of funny, and it made me go to my Joy of Cooking and find stuff to make. Book Review: Delicious.
Summary: 4 Stars
While many reviewers here object to Julie's copious cussing, her dislike of Republicans, her mentions of sex, I found this book delightful. As a twentysomething in an uninspiring job, already feeling like I've wasted my life, I really related to Julie's desire for a project and relished her straightforward descriptions of a "normal" person's surprisingly successful navigation of Child's first cookbook. Her descriptions of food titillated my senses and her pitfalls made me giggle out loud on the bus. This book is a joy and an inspiration.Book Review: Don't waste your money
Summary: 2 Stars
Please don't waste your time or money purchasing this book. Our book club decided to read it based on it's "good" reviews. Only one person out of six finished it (just to get it done). The language is foul and the story is boring and drags on, which makes it difficult to follow and finish. Two stars is being generous. Book Review: Hilarious, Witty, Wonderful break!
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book! I started a book club a year or so ago, this was our most recent selection. It seemed for several months, that no matter which book we selected, turned out to be a depressing family drama, with little humor and often less than impressive writing skills. A fellow book club reader selected this book in an attempt to take a break from the sob stories we had been reading. She absolutely succeeded!
I will admit, I was skeptical at first...french cooking...Who cares?! But it was not long before i fell in love with this book. As the reader, you need a certain appreciation for the pecularities of life and the hilarity of our seemingly mundane lives. I appreciated Julie's candid accounts of her personal life, as well as her honesty and insight. I love her sarcasm, wit and ability to laugh at herself...even publicly.
I found myself reading excerpts of the book to anyone who would listen. I wanted to share the pure humor with everyone around me. After reading, I found myself approaching life a little differently and taking myself a little less seriously.
If you are looking for a recipe book, this is not it. If you are looking for a laugh, looking for some inspiration, looking for a nice break from your own life...this is the book!
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.