The movie is really the best!! It has everything that a great movie should have. The story is engaging and full of twists and turns that keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The acting is superb, with the actors bringing the characters to life in a way that makes you truly care about them. The special effects are also top-notch, adding an extra layer of excitement and realism to the movie. Whether you're a fan of action, drama, or comedy, this movie has something for everyone. It's a must-see for any movie lover and will leave you feeling entertained and satisfied. So don't miss out on this amazing movie - go and see it today!

There is a great deal of hate for Julie Powell here.

I don't truly despise her, yet I have no intention of reading anything else she has written.

I became interested in reading this after watching the movie and due to my rekindled interest in cooking.

I preferred the movie more, perhaps in part because the Julie Powell character, as portrayed by Amy Adams, was more endearing in the movie than in the book.

But also because the movie (besides incorporating parts based on Julia Child's autobiography) placed greater emphasis on the cooking and food.

The author, Julie Powell, gets sidetracked by whining (yes, that's the major gripe about her on Goodreads) about everything in a manner that she has apparently been led to believe is humorous, but in reality, it isn't, and she is also very much distracted by sharing a lot about her friends' romantic lives.

I understand that her follow-up to this book is even worse. I'll pass on it.

Sadly, the movie was better.

The author's writing was so cringey that it was hard to get through.

I can completely understand why Julia Child herself was not a fan of this work.

And it seems that this girl, whoever she is, also shares the same sentiment.

Perhaps the author tried too hard to imitate Julia Child's style but failed miserably.

The story might have had potential, but the execution was lacking.

It's a shame because Julia Child's life and work are so inspiring, and this piece just didn't do her justice.

Maybe the author should go back to the drawing board and try again, this time with a better understanding of what made Julia Child so great.

Until then, it looks like we'll have to stick with the movie to get a true sense of Julia Child's charm and talent.

I truly and deeply liked the premise for this book.

I grew up watching Julia Child on weekends, until my Dad showed me that one SNL clip of her and I naively thought it was real. I was so scared that I didn't want to risk anymore accidental bloodbaths by watching her show.

Anyway, I have a great love for Julia Child, but I DISLIKED this book. The narrator is extremely whiny and self-deprecating in a manner that I can only assume she believes is refreshing and funny. However, it actually comes off as sad, unholy, and like the step-cousin of Bridget Jones. Her constant exaltation of liberals and hatred of all Republicans is a prime example of her pseudo-intellectual tone throughout the entire book. I was offended even though I belong to neither party. Her tone was self-absorbed, and she pulled that thing in the beginning of the book where she was like "this is the true story of my project. Except for the parts that aren't true, and those are fiction!" Look, lady, you weren't in freaking 'Nam, there is no valid reason to pull the meta-fiction card.

I also disliked how she treated her husband. He had been by her side since high school, encouraged her project, did the dishes, and endured her meltdowns. But all she talked about was wanting to sleep with other people, envying her friends' single lives, and wanting to hit his head against the wall. I mean, I have a husband who has also stood by me, encourages my projects, does the dishes, and sits through my meltdowns, but it only makes me like him more and want to try harder. She completely took everything out on him and even flirted with other people while doing so.

At the end of the book, she discovers that the real Julia Child HATES her blog, and Julie is utterly upset until she reconciles it in her mind by telling herself that "her Julia" loves and encourages her, and is in fact the real Julia, and that everyone can create their own Julia in their head. To which I say, BS - Julia Child doesn't like it, end of story. Don't try to manipulate the situation and force your readers to believe otherwise.

I have never experienced such a combination of anxiety and laughter within the pages of a book before.

It is truly a remarkable read that has managed to elicit such a wide range of emotions from me.

The author has skillfully crafted a story that keeps you on the edge of your seat one moment and then has you doubling over with laughter the next.

It's a rare find and I will definitely be keeping it to put on my shelves.

This book is not only entertaining but also thought-provoking, making it a must-read for anyone who enjoys a good story that can touch their heart and make them think.

I highly recommend it to all book lovers out there.

Once, a year or two ago, I first saw the movie based on this book and it was such a captivating experience!

I have a penchant for culinary themes. I bought a lot of cooking books and magazines and started to be interested in the cuisines of the world, especially French cuisine! Then I wanted to reread books with a culinary subtext and made a whole list of such books. This was one of them.

After the movie, which I really liked and which inspired me to do culinary experiments, I expected the same from the book, or even more. But... this seems to be that rare moment when the movie turned out to be much more interesting and better than the book on which it was based. I thought that the movie was so great thanks to Meryl Streep's unrivaled performance in the role of Julia Child, but no... not only because of that. In the movie, there is a sense of something new and joyous when the author started her blog, where she talked about her culinary experiments with preparing all the dishes mentioned in Julia Child's book (an American culinary star, I highly recommend watching the old recordings of her cooking shows). And in this there was a challenge, curiosity, self-improvement, and that - in the movie, there is a sense of Julia's happiness from what she is doing. In the movie, everything is delicious, everything is beautiful. In the book, the impressions are completely different - the author struggles with those recipes for a year just because she decided to, and there is no sense of any happiness or even satisfaction from what she is doing.

Somehow the book didn't impress... but the movie is great!

I didn't manage to get past the very first chapter.

I simply cannot stomach Julie's filthy prating. It is truly令人反感.

Julia Child, on the other hand, was a class act through and through. She had an elegance and charm that was unmatched.

She dedicated her life to the art of cooking and inspired countless people around the world.

She deserves so much better than to be associated with someone like Julie.

Her legacy should be remembered and celebrated, not overshadowed by the unseemly behavior of others.

It is a shame that Julie's actions have detracted from the positive image that Julia Child worked so hard to create.

We should strive to uphold the standards that Julia Child set and show the respect and appreciation that she truly deserves.

When the heroine rants about food, it is quite pleasant and funny to read.

However, when she rants about the rest of her life, I felt like shaking her hard and reminding her that she is 30 years old, not 15, and perhaps she should stop behaving like a promiscuous bachelor.

Moreover, I was a bit surprised that in a book that is somehow about Julia Child, there are actually no fragments from her perspective. Her husband, on the other hand, became the hero of the narrative about how he met and fell in love with Julia.

This omission of Julia's own voice makes the story feel a bit one-sided. It would have been interesting to have her thoughts and feelings included, especially since the book is ostensibly about her.

Overall, while the book has its entertaining moments, this lack of a more complete portrayal of Julia Child is a bit disappointing.

I can clearly understand why this book became a successful blog. It's more like a collection of light snacks rather than a grand and elaborate a la carte meal in a fancy French restaurant. The author's constant repetition of her loathing for Republicans, her job as a secretary, and her liberal use of her favorite words "fuck" and "suck" (not in a sexual context) probably give you a sense of the somewhat one-note nature of this book. A snarky, sarcastic, and constantly whining personality that might be amusing to read on a daily blog can become a bit tiresome in a full-length book. Reading it is similar to having to eat all your meals at McDonald's every day from Sunday for a week. By Wednesday, you would be longing for a salad and perhaps a refreshing sorbet, but instead, you would get yet another flabby burger with undercooked and slightly wilted fries.

For non-Americans, Julia Child is not much more than a name that some people might recognize. However, the imagined episodes of her life in the book are engaging and delightful. She was a very unusual woman, far more interesting than the author herself, but the author did a good job of writing about her. Therein lies hope. If Julie Powell can write this well when not writing about herself, then perhaps there will be other, non-autobiographical books in the future.

An addendum: I used to be a member of a private group on Goodreads of women trying to lose weight. They were all American and they passionately hated this book. I mean, they really, really hated it. They wanted the author punished, no one to stock her books, and everyone to give her a one-star rating. What was her crime? She was a Democrat. I stood up for her because I'm not an American and I don't really care about US internal affairs. Anyway, they threw me out and all of them banned me!

(One later wrote in an IM to the mod of a private group that I was a whore who had lived with two men at the same time. The mod thought it was funny. It was true, except I'm not a whore, and the men, my first and later my second husband, were in different countries and knew about each other. Indeed, my first husband was at the birth of my baby in London and the baby's father in the Caribbean phoned and thanked him.)

Now, strangely, not long after this, I was friendly and in a secret group with another set of Americans. All Democrats. There were problems over the same book. They all wanted me to agree that Republicans were the devil's spawn. The only man in the group took me to task for defending evil Republicans. They threw me out too. I wasn't respectful enough to the guy, apparently. Oh, right. There you go.

These two events hurt me so much that I had to console myself with several bars of chocolate and a whole evening of watching Masterchef. And even after rereading and editing this review again, I'm still so distraught that I'm going to have to finish the bottle of chocolate Baileys and hope I feel better then.

I finally got around to reading it! And right away, I decided to donate it to the library sale.

I purchased this book way back in 2008 or 2009 when I was working at Waldenbooks. At that time, I thought it was such a cute concept - and the fact that we share the same name was an added bonus.

However, it turns out that's where the similarities end.

I should have realized from the start that this book wasn't going to be my cup of tea. Firstly, I absolutely loathe cooking, so the detailed descriptions of the food held no interest for me whatsoever. Secondly, I already had an inkling that I wouldn't care for Julie Powell much. I knew her second book was about attending butcher school, and I also knew that she'd had an affair and her marriage was falling apart. Well, after reading this book, it all became even less surprising. She constantly went on about how her group of friends were all engaged in affairs, cheating on their spouses, sleeping with other people's husbands, or breaking up their own marriages. And Julie seemed to come to the conclusion that "well, if that's what makes them happy....."

Sorry, but I just can't buy into that way of thinking.

The only parts of the book that I found even remotely interesting were the letters/diaries that Paul wrote about Julia Child. But I'm not even sure if those were real or fabricated. To be honest, I'd much rather read a book about Julia Child's life itself.

Someone might say that this is an inspiring book about finding purpose in life amid adversity. It could be argued that the protagonist's journey in the story serves as a powerful example of how one can rise above difficult circumstances and discover meaning and direction.

Someone might also say that the book is a beautiful homage to the joy and art of cooking. The detailed descriptions of the various dishes prepared and the passion with which the characters approach cooking make it clear that this is not just a mundane activity but a source of great pleasure and creativity.

That someone may argue this novel demonstrates that it is through cooking and blogging that love, friendship and community are cultivated. The sharing of recipes, the exchange of ideas and the support given by the online community all contribute to a sense of connection and belonging.

This increasingly hypothetical someone would not be me. While I can see the merit in these interpretations, I have my own perspective on the book, which I will explore further in the following paragraphs.

I was truly disappointed in this book. The premise seemed so neat and exciting - this woman embarks on a journey to cook her way through the entire "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" within a year. I was really looking forward to a kind of fun foodie memoir, similar to "French Women Don't Get Fat" or "Monsoon Diary", both of which I would highly recommend.

However, what I got was more of a story about her life with cooking being more of an incidental aspect. There was still a fair amount of content related to cooking, but there was also an awful lot about her drunk friends. And she uses the f-word a LOT, which I found rather off-putting.

So, overall, it was an okay read. But I have to admit that I would probably have enjoyed actually reading "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" more. It also would have been much more enjoyable if she was a smoother or more lyrical writer. She's obviously intelligent, and I did enjoy her literary references to things like Gatsby or Philip Marlowe. But her writing style isn't particularly stand-out or engaging. It just didn't have that certain something that would have made it a truly great read.