From Publishers Weekly
Powell became an Internet celebrity with her 2004 blog chronicling her yearlong odyssey of cooking every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. A frustrated secretary in New York City, Powell embarked on "the Julie/Julia project" to find a sense of direction, and both the cooking and the writing quickly became all-consuming. Some passages in the book are taken verbatim from the blog, but Powell expands on her experience and gives generous background about her personal life: her doting husband, wacky friends, evil co-workers. She also includes some comments from her "bleaders" (blog readers), who formed an enthusiastic support base. Powell never met Julia Child (who died last year), but the venerable chef's spirit is present throughout, and Powell imaginatively reconstructs episodes from Child's life in the 1940s. Her writing is feisty and unrestrained, especially as she details killing lobsters, tackling marrowbones and cooking late into the night. Occasionally the diarist instinct overwhelms the generally tight structure and Powell goes on unrelated tangents, but her voice is endearing enough that readers will quickly forgive such lapses. Both home cooks and devotees of Bridget Jones–style dishing will be caught up in Powell's funny, sharp-tongued but generous writing.

I found this one just ok. It reads like a blog which gets old after a while. I know that it started as a blog, but this is supposed to be the book... I also felt that she was overly disrespectful to her husband. Really, why are they together? It doesn't seem like she cares for him much. I did enjoy the bits about cooking and the bizarre French offal cooking techniques, though sadly the foodie parts were much more sparse than I expected for a book about a year of cooking! This book had lots of potential, but ended up falling flat.

I won this at a live swap we had when Ri came back to Toronto! I remember someone offering it up on a swap and I added it to my wishlist (so did my mother). I went out and bought it for my mother for Christmas for selfish reasons, because I wanted to read it too. Well now I have my own copy! mwahahaha!!

When Julie breaks down after being given a speech on how she should start having children before it's too late one too many times, her husband Eric helps her come up with a project to take her mind off things; cook all recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking within a year. That's 524 recipes and some are not for the faint of heart. This includes aspic, liver, kidneys, chopping up a live lobster, and even brain.

Julie took to the internet to blog her progress, which is how we ended up with this book. The book was quirky and cute. Interspersed in the book though are letters from Paul Child, Julia's husband. These felt incredibly out of place. Don't go into this book expecting it to be more about Julia Child than Julie Powell, or expecting to find out anything new about Julia Child. This is really just a documentation of a cooking experiment, the way things can go horribly wrong in the kitchen, and life in New York City.

This book isn't the best written book in the world, nor the most interesting, but if you're looking for a quick fun read this shouldn't disappoint.

Mailed today to Jordanne as a Christmas RABCK!

And I received it today together with a nice Christmas card and some scrapbooking goodies! Thank you Lauren!

I got another copy of this book so I'm sending this one to Camis because it was on her wishlist.

Received for EuroExchange - thanks!