Julie Powell

Julie & Julia, the bestselling memoir that's "irresistible....A kind of Bridget Jones meets The French Chef" (Philadelphia Inquirer), is now a major motion picture. Julie Powell, nearing thirty and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, resolves to reclaim her life by cooking in the span of a single year, every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child's legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her unexpected reward: not just a newfound respect for calves' livers and aspic, but a new life-lived with gusto. The film is written and directed by Nora Ephron and stars Amy Adams as Julie and Meryl Streep as Julia.

My Year of Cooking Dangerously

Julie and Julia

Julie Powell is 30 years old, living in a rundown apartment in Queens and working at a secretarial job that's going nowhere. She needs something to break the monotony of her life, and she invents a deranged assignment. She will cook all 524 recipes in Julia Child's 1961 classic Mastering the Art of French Cooking. In the span of one year. At first she thinks it will be easy, but as she moves from simple potato soup into more complicated realms, she realizes there's more to Mastering the Art than meets the eye. She haunts the local butcher, buying kidneys and sweetbreads. She 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 eclipsed her life's ordinariness through humor, hysteria, and perseverance.--From publisher description.

365 days, 524 recipes, 1 tiny apartment kitchen ...

Briar's Reviews

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.

Alexandra Sklar

As expected. Liked more than I thought I would.

i loved the flow of the book, with the insertions of Julia’s writing. i also appreciate how real she was about the struggles and didn’t hide wanting to quit 

Kristina K

Bunnhi

I enjoyed the movie a lot & went into this book thinking it was going to expound on the cooking. Clearly it did not, granted it's great that she spoke about her life at the time but it just wasn't what I wanted to read. I gave it my usual 1/3 way into the book before I gave up. Maybe one day I'll go back & finish, as for the time being, can't stand it.

my year of cooking dangerously

Arden Kowalski

Things Julie Powell and I have in common: a deep hatred for Republicans.
Things Julie Powell and I do not have in common: the ability to cook.

Julie and Julia My Year of Cooking Dangerously

Reviews