In honor of the movie Julie and Julia coming to the theaters I read Julie and Julia. It was an interesting story of a girl trying to make every recipe in Mastering the Art of French Cooking book in one year's time. I wasn't a fan of the author's writing style. I could have done without all the swearing and all the graphic writing style.

I will say this is a good book to read before you read other Julia Child books and before you see the movie.

I NEVER feel this way. The book was good, but Julie came off as bitchy and mean. I liked the movie better.

Overall I thought this book was funny and entertaining. It was interesting to read about Julie's experience cooking all those crazy French dishes!! I don't think I could kill a live lobster or eat organ meats (especially brains! yuck) but it was definitely entertaining to hear about her experiences doing it. My one complaint about the memoir genre is that sometimes I feel it gives the author license to whine incessantly about her life which Julie did do in this book....however she was funny about it albeit sometimes pretty annoying. I did watch the movie and I thought it was much better than the book which is unusual. The movie was 50% about Julia Child's life which I loved. Even the little 'snippets' about Julia Child in the book weren't very interesting or effective....the book wouldn't have changed much without them. However, if she would have focused more on Julia Child's bio/story the book could have been greatly improved.

Our book club enjoyed this alot. We had a French food potluck and a member brought her old version of MtAoFC by Child. We all love food!

This was a quick read but I liked Julie Powell a little less with every chapter. She was spoiled, crude, and self-pitying. By the time I read about her filthy feet I wanted to smack her and tell her to clean her damn apartment. She sounded like a real slob. I can't imagine eating anything that was prepared in her kitchen (maggots?! UGH!) She writes well and maybe she matured a bit over the course of her project but she was so immature and self-absorbed that I couldn't care less about her and whether or not she completed her "project."

I read this book and then saw the movie. I never say this but I actually liked the movie better. The main character in the book came across very whiny. I didn't like her character in the book - but I did in the movie.

I liked the book and would recommend it to book clubs. I was put off a bit by the language in the book- certainly not what Julia Child would have expected from a protege!! Overall the book was a fun read. I also just made my first recipe from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Julie Powell's description of the creation of the recipes was addictive!!

I could not stay focused, never could read more than 20 pages at one sitting, jumps around too much, no plot.

Julie is a talented writer and funny, but the content was a little boring and went on too long. I didn't think her excerps from Julia Child went well w/her book.