Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

OK, I originally picked up this book when I heard the author, Julie Powell, was going to be in town for a speaking engagement. I love going to author engagements but thought I had better actually have read something of hers first if I was going to hear her speak. I had seen the movie starring Amy Adams and Merle Streep (numerous times as anyone with a Starz subscription can attest) but picked up the book nonetheless. As it turned out, I was unable to attend Ms. Powell's speaking engagement due to a nasty cold and the fact that it was the same night as the Oscars (I wasn't attending, sadly, but I do watch faithfully each year). I was originally going to write about her speaking engagement in combination with the book but, I'll go ahead and tell you about the book anyway.

Julie & Julia is basically Julie Powell's blog in book form. Powell was an office drone in Manhattan, unhappy with her lot in life. Stuck in a rut, nearing her thirtieth birthday, Powell decides to make a change in her life and start a blog (this was in 2002 in the very early days of blogging; not everyone and their dog had one then) in which she would chronicle her attempts to cook her way through Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. 524 recipes in 365 days. A tall feat by anyone's standards.

Powell cooks, she burns dishes, she tries new and unusual foods, she drinks - a lot - and she becomes quite the blogging sensation. She quickly amasses a very devoted following who all urge her on to meet her deadline and finish the project. By the end of the project, Powell has an offer to turn her blog into a book and she is able to quit her office drone job and become a full time writer. Mission accomplished!

Powell definitely has an entertaining, conversational voice that makes for easy reading. I mean, this isn't Milan Kundera by any means. But she's funny and self deprecating and that makes for a fun, fast read. She does have a tendency to wander off on tangents often - a trait I found distracting and something I thought a good editor would have been able to fix. It's almost as if she has ADD and loses track of what story she was telling, flitting from one thought to the next without warning. She eventually makes it back around to her original point but by the time she does, you've forgotten what her original point was.

Unfortunately, Powell is also a bit whiny and self absorbed. And her husband, Eric, deserves a medal for putting up with her throughout her "year of cooking dangerously". My reasons for this statement are thus: 1) how they didn't end up declaring bankruptcy after buying all the specialty ingredients, utensils and implements required for these dated French dishes is beyond me; 2) they often didn't eat until after 10:00 at night due to the complexity of the dishes (something that absolutely would not fly with my husband who requires sustenance on a very regular schedule); and 3) the project, and subsequently the blog, took over her life with very little room for anything else. It takes a big person to take a back seat for a whole year, and for that I give Eric Powell props.

The book was a fun, mindless read but now, a month after finishing it, I've found I've forgotten most of the details of the book - at least those that weren't covered in the movie. And I have also come to the conclusion that, although I really enjoyed the movie, after reading the book, the parts I enjoyed most were the parts about Julia Child. She was a fascinating woman and I now realize instead of reading Julie & Julia I should have just read a Julia Child biography. For this I am going to give Julie & Julia two and a half bows. It really was meh. I didn't hate it but it didn't move me or stick with me in any way. You may have a different opinion. Tell me what you thought of the book below in the comments section. And until next time, happy reading everyone!