I came across this book and once I read the back, I thought I would definitely be able to relate to Julie. I feel her pain with being stuck in a dead end job and I love to cook! I very much enjoyed the beginning of the book and it gave me hope that the rest of the book would follow through. The thing is it didn't. Some of the parts were actually comical, don't get me wrong. But as the book went on, I started getting bored as the same ol' things were happening over and over. Julie is cooking a new recipe, messes it up, yells at her husband, and adds another post to her blog. Near the end, I was no longer able to relate with Julie. Therefore, I lost interest...

normally when i read the novel and it's amazing i will refuse to watch the movie. the film always butchers the book, characters and general feeling of the book. my absolutely fave about this book is her cooking from Child's recipes and her difficulties- she's funny. And she is a huge fan of BUFFY (awesome i totally love buffy too) i would have preferred powell to explain some of the recipes in english. she did with most, but i needed a better description. maybe it's just me, because i don't cook. the book is delicious the recipes she makes- yum-o interesting experiment- based on true events. not hilarious to me movie probably funnier, but some parts give you a chuckle.

3.5 stars Julie Powell is coming up on her 30th birthday and is a secretary. She decides she will embark on a one-year project - to cook all the recipes in Julia Child's cookbook, Mastering the Fine Art of French Cooking, and to blog about it. I liked this. Not as much as the movie, but the movie also incorporated My Life in France by Julia Child, so it was a mix of the two (and I haven't read My Life in France yet, but I plan to). But I still quite enjoyed this. I am not a foodie, but this may even be more enjoyable for those who are, with all the descriptions of the food. Actually, I'm a picky eater and some of that food... well, eeew! But, it was fun to read about Julie's mishaps in the kitchen! I don't like to cook, and I have to say that this book just says it all! It's just way too much effort!!! But, fun to read about. I also enjoyed the relationships that Julie made with her "bleaders" (what she called her blog readers), and how those developed.

*** SPOILERS ALERT!! *** I like to cook. Most of the time, I’m good with thinking up dinner recipes – or finding ones in cookbooks, baking cakes, cookies, and whatnot, and just creating things in the kitchen. Sometimes I need motivation. When I started reading Julie Powell’s book Julie and Julia I felt very motivated. After reading the first chapter, I dug out my cookbooks and planned meals for the next couple days. And I really enjoyed cooking them. Halfway through the book I realized that it was all pretty much the same thing happening. Julie cooks Julia’s recipes – they either turn out well or they’re garbage. She works her way through the entire Mastering the Art of French Cooking book, eating things like liver, duck, marrow, etc. She swears, she cries, her husband helps her at times, she feeds friends and family, she writes on her blog (which was a pretty new concept when she had started blogging). At this halfway point, I realized that while Julie is “finding herself” while cooking, it’s also the same thing over and over again. She cooks, they eat, she goes to her day job, people notice her blog and she experiences a bit of fame. After this point, I put the book down. I was bored. She cooked. She wasn’t a cleaner (maybe I’m a clean freak, but the thought of those little black flies in my kitchen, and the part with the maggots just didn’t sit well with me – who lets their kitchen get that way?). She was gaining weight because of the sheer amount of fat used in the cooking. She didn’t like her office job because it wasn’t helping her discover herself. Blah, blah, blah. I started reading Julie and Julia at the beginning of November. Now, at the beginning of December, after reading 4 other books, I’ve finished reading it. I didn’t feel enlightened after finishing the book. In fact, I didn’t even feel the urge to cook anymore. Julie Powell is a decent writer, though she does stray from topic to topic throughout the book. One thing would remind her of another and she’d go off talking about something else. As a reader, I didn’t feel intrigued to get to the end of the book – I assumed she’d work her way to the end of MtAoFC and discover herself. It wasn’t like reading a regular fiction book – there was no suspense, no intrigue, no mystery. In fact, by the end of the book there were a few endings (where Julie felt the need to write “The End”. Twice.) where I just thought to myself, “Finish it already!” By the end of the book, Julie cooks her final dish well, but still doesn’t really know how to cook. I don’t want to toot my own horn, but I do find myself to be slightly more capable in the kitchen which might be why I couldn’t relate to Julie. When something goes wrong, I’m not swearing. I don’t let the dishes pile up for days. Cooking is more therapeutic for me rather than a chore (which is what the Julie/Julia Project seemed to be like for Julie). I’m not the best cook in the world – in fact, far from it – but I manage. After following a “how to” cookbook for a year I would think I’d be better in the kitchen, just as I thought Julie would have turned into a better chef than she was at the start of the book. I’m very interested to watch the movie with Meryl Streep and Amy Adams – perhaps it’ll keep my interest more than the book did. On another note, at the end of the book there is an excerpt from Julie Powell’s next book Cleaving: a Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession. After reading bits of that excerpt, I noticed it was the same kind of writing as in Julie and Julia and I really don’t see myself purchasing it. I’m not sure why, after writing a memoir about food, Julie would write yet another memoir about food. Instead of working her way through a cookbook, she’s discovering herself as a butcher. Wow. Maybe she’s just trying to stretch out those 15 minutes of fame. I think I would give the book 2 stars out of 5. Now, we’ll see how the movie fares.

I read this book over the course of one of my Saturday shifts at work. The call volume was low and I had time between calls to motor through this book. Julie & Julia is a fast and very easy read. That doesn't to say it's too simple to really care about, because it isn't. I would have given it five stars, because I did like it quite a lot, but I'm not a fan of letters interjecting narrative. They pull me right out of the story and I don't find them all that interesting. But I enjoyed hearing of Julie's adventures in the kitchen. I dare say I liked it so much better than the movie. But usually that's the case with movies and books they're based on, am I right?

...definitely not my favorite book....it wasnt horrible and I would recommend it to people if they were out of ideas but overall its not great.

I got this book as a gift and it sat at the bottom of a pile of books for a couple of weeks. Then I was at a salon going through a magazine and there was an excerpt of Julie Powell's next book and apparently she had an affair after the cooking project, and in that little excerpt there was so much humour and drama- well I had to go home and start reading ' Julie and Julia' ...and it was so hilarious! She is a little crazy and thats what made this book even more enjoyable.

I recently watched the movie version of this book and I was immediately drawn to Julie. Her life and mine are so similar, it's crazy. (I even share her love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer...HAHAHA.) I can see myself doing what she did, maybe not to the extent that she did, but at least 75-80% of it. So, I decided that I would read her book, to see if it was as good as the movie. So far, I LOVE it. I love her comments, her sense of humor, and the way that she describes her cooking fiascos. (I just finished reading about the bone marrow incident, and I loved it...as gross as it was, lol, it was still funny reading it.) Anyhow, I recommend this book to anyone and everyone. 2 thumbs up :)

I read this book before seeing the movie and am glad that I did as there are some subtle scenes included in the book that were not in the movie. Powell's account of her year cooking through Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child brings alive the chaos that her life must have been at the time! The lobster tales are so funny that you can't help but laugh out loud. There was less about Julia Child in the book but that did not detract in any way. This book was good enough to convince me to buy her next one, "Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat and Obsession."

I had a lot of fun reading this book. Made me want to attempt a project like this myself, or at least eat more french food.