Amazon.co.uk:
Product Description
Trapped in a boring job and living in a tiny apartment in New York, Julie Powell regularly finds herself weeping on the way home from work. Then one night, through her mascara-smudged eyes, Julie notices that the few items she’s grabbed from the Korean grocery store are the very ingredients for Potage Parmentier, as described in Julia Childs’ legendary cookbook, Mastering the Art of French Cooking. And The Project is born. Julie begins to cook – every one of the 524 recipes in the book, in the space of just one year. This is Julie’s story, as gradually, from oeufs en cocotte to bifstek sauté au beurre, from “Bitch Rice” to preparing live lobsters, she realises that this deranged Project is changing her life. The richness of the thousands of sauces she slaves over is beginning to spread into her life, and she begins to find the joie de vivre that has been missing for too many years.

Julie & Julia-Official Trailer

European bookring
The book should fit through most letterboxes.

Guidelines:
PM me to join!
Last date for signing up Sat 31st January 2009
You must live within Europe to join
You must be willing to mail within Europe (economy/surface mail more than fine!)
Make a JE when you receive the book
Read the book within two weeks
Contact the next person on the list for their address
Make a JE saying what you thought of the book
Send the book along

Questions?
Please PM me!

Participants:
Vilda, Sweden
Bjorg, Iceland
Rossella05, UK
Lucy-Lemon, UK
LyzzyBee, UK
Wanderingstar8,UK
Voveryte, UK
AliceF, UK
Dutchbooky, the Netherlands
Panzeranzi, Sweden
Babelfisk, Sweden
Back to me, Sobergirl

May the bookring begin:
Mailed to Vilda via airmail today!

Found the book in the mail today. Excited to read it!

I didn't know anything about this book before coming across this bookring. I enjoyed this novel and found it fun and witty.

I will send it to Bjorg today.

The book just arrived:) thanks Vilda:) am in a middle of a book right now but should be able to start on this one in a day or 2:)

Ehm, rather disappointed with the book, somehow I just did not get into it at all!!!
Will send it off to Rossella05 once I have got the address:)

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Sending this book to the next reader, Rossella05:)

Takk fyrir Bjorg. Will start reading today.

I've just ordered "Japanese Cooking: A Simple Art" by Shizuo Tsuji, I'm blaming Sobergirl and Julie Powell for this. I'm going to Ikea later today to buy some kitchen utensils I'm going to need... I really liked this book but when I first started reading I didn't think I would have; so if you're considering giving up on it, I would suggest you stick with it a little longer, just in case. At first I found Julie to be sort of annoying, I thought her attitude was a little immature, like her obsession with Republicans which she calls 'pure evil', it was neither funny nor did it add anything to the story, it just didn't mean anything to me (perhaps because I'm not American). I didn't mind her use of the f word but calling christians looney is just sad - and hardly original. Apart from that, I soon discovered we had a lot in common. We both met our husbands when we were in our teens, later moved to the city and married at 24. In the story she also doesn't have any solid career prospects and is contemplating having children (I hope I'm not oversharing..). But I really started liking her when I found out she was a fan of Buffy the vampire slayer which I also believe to be the best tv series ever. Once I got past the first half of the book and got a better sense of who she was and what the Julie/Julia project meant to her I started enjoying the story a lot more. The informal and spontaneous language allows the reader to feel closer to the protagonist and to share her excitement. I also think it was a great idea to include, between chapters, letters and stories from the life of Julia Child so as to create a parallel between the lives of the two women at a momentous time in their lives. You won't find details of recipes in this book or useful tips (more along the lines of what 'not to do'), the author approaches her culinary challenge with humour and lightness and ultimately finds herself profoundly affected by it. Fun an witty like Vilda said, I will buy another copy to share with my girlfriends. Let me just add a quote from the book, otherwise I'll forget it: "If there's a sexier sound on this planet than the person you're in love with cooing over the crepes you made for him, I don't know what it is." Thank you for sharing, I have Lucy's address and will post the book today.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

I couldn't find the trailer for the film, maybe it's not available yet but if Norah Ephron is directing I'm definitely going to see it.

This arrived today, and I'm already on page 69! Really enjoying it so far - and if there's a film version I'm definitely going!

I really, really enjoyed this book. I think Julie must have been a little crazy to start, but good on her for not giving up. I think I would have run away screaming when I got to the egg in aspic part if I'd been made to cook them.

It's totally inspired me to look up some recipes I haven't tried yet (although they've been more like pomegranate and bulghur wheat pilaf than stuff involving marrow).

Sending to LyzzyBee today.

Received today - thank you! What a lovely cover...

I enjoyed this, but not as much as I'd hoped. I do find that these books that have come out of a blog (I'm thinking One Red Paperclip here) can sometimes be a little lazy and/or flabby - not enough tight editing. I know this is separate from the blog, and brings in about blogging, having regular readers etc, but sometimes it felt a little self-indulgent and could have been a bit tighter.

Not for the squeamish - though she tackles the subjects well and gets across an idea of what it's like to do the actual cooking. Goodness I wouldn't do that - the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book, 1968 is about as exotic as I go.

Some people would be offended by the swearing, attitudes etc in this; didn't bother me but thought I should put that down. I thought she was a bit silly putting in stuff about how the people at her office didn't want her to put details about the office in the book... a bit immature.

I don't really know WHAT I thought of this book - can you tell!? But it was an interesting read and some great moments, if some cringey ones too.

Thanks for including me in the ring - I'll PM the next reader right away.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Mailing to the next recipient.

Thanks - looking forward to reading!

Received today! Will start to read as soon as possible!

Finished! Really really entertaining and I'm so happy I got the chance to read this book! It definitely gets much better on the second half of the book which means you are more and more captivated by the whole story and concept. Having started a cooking blog myself and turning 30 this year made this book even more exciting to read. Though I must admit, the challenge Julie got into is much more worth praise and attention, and I still have to find such a wonderful husband that Julie has.. :)
Only somewhere halfway through I have realised that this book comes out of real blog and real story, so I made a bit of research after finishing reading. I have found Julie Powell's current blog What Could Happen? and also the original Julie/Julia Project! I'm going to bookmark them and flick through when I have some time... And I'm already waiting for the movie... :)

Thanks Sobergirl for including me into this ring and wanderingstar8 for sending this to me. The book will travel to AliceF tomorrow.

Arrived by post today... thanks!

Took a while to get a feel for this book, but once I did, I confess I no longer felt the need to read it through thoroughly, and so skimmed the latter two-thirds. I think I probably would have read the blog more comprehensively, had I known about it when it was current.

The book is kind of non-fiction chick-lit, which I found unusual; I would have liked the chance to dip into it now and then over a long period, which is not really appropriate with a bookring.

I wonder if - unconsciously - "the project" was a way for Julie to avoid thinking about New York's terrorist attack too much... if so, fair play! On that note, there was one line that I found particularly meaningful (bookmarked it for future readers), and so I'm repeating it here in order that I can read it again some time: You can get used to anything, as long as you don't mind collapsing a few mineshafts of your brain where the stuff you can't think about is skulking around. It's easy - not simple, maybe, but easy.

Thanks for the loan.

CONTROLLED RELEASE NOTES:

Enjoy!

Book arrived earlier this week. I have another bookring to finish first. Hope to start this one soon!

Edit July 16: I am reading this book, but my holiday is coming up, so I'll have this a bit longer. Hope to mail it out by the end of August!

I just don't seem to be able to get into this novel. I don't like Powell's style of writing, or maybe I am just not in the mood for books about food. Since it has been with me far too long, I am going to get it moving again and will mail it to Panzeranzi today.
Thanks, Sobergirl, for sharing the book and sorry for keeping it so long. I hope to enjoy the movie more.

The book arrived today. I'll try to read it as soon as possible.

I really enjoyed reading this book, thanks for sharing! I didn´t know this book was made into a film, it has just come to Sweden now. I guess I'll have to see it. I didn't especially like the food Julie cooked, lots of the stuff seemed to be really horrible, but i appreciated the project as such. It's a wonderful idea to embark on a project like this when life hasn't become what you thought it would be, just to snap you out of your boring life and take you to a different place. I think we all are capable of so much more than we think.

I'll send the book to babelfisk as soon as possible.

This was a real surprise. I had totally forgotten about my participation. Looking forward to reading it.

It was quite a charming book which I quite enjoyed! Thanks for sharing!

Now I'm sending it back to Sobergirl.

Thank you all for participating! The book is now *home* again awaiting further adventures!

Nice Garden Hotel April/May 2011

Hey! we found this book in the hotel where we work, in a boring day of february :) actually the book was supposed to be thrown away, but the little bookcrossing.com label caught our attention so we have checked it out. We ll take care of the book, make sure that it will still travel :)