Goodreads Mobile | see what your friends are reading

Sep 07, 2010

Ciara rated it:

i hated this book. i read julie & julia &, you know, i didn't think julie powell was the next shakespeare or anything, but she managed to pull together a better book than most bloggers-turned-authors out there. i was engaged with the story. i enjoyed the prose in an auto-pilot brain kind of way. i figured this book would be more of the same--philosophical insights about her personal life shared through a prism of foodie-ness. & i guess that's what it was, but it was also unspeakably horrible.
More...

10 comments like (41 people liked it)

Oct 07, 2010

CC rated it:

Oh boy. The essence of Julie Powell's new book centers around her two year affair with a sleazy, unattractive loser she knew from college (her husband Eric knows and instead of taking a stand that she end it, just makes passive-aggressive quips about it).

Between all the obsession, there's an alternating story about Julie as she learns the art of butchering. The two stories have virtually nothing to do with each other and I suspect the butchery was just thrown in as some sort of an a More...

0 comments like (7 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2010

Jamie rated it:

I haven't read or seen Julie and Julia. So I had no opinion on Julie Powell one way or another, except that I think the casting of Amy Adams probably means to an extent at least she was a bit of a sweetheart.

So, to me, the first half of this audio deserves 5 stars. To follow up your momsy bestseller with a book in which you juxtapose butchery and buggery deserves my applause. She is FEARLESS in talking about her desire for rough sex, her extramarital affair, and her obsessions. As we More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Feb 23, 2010

Jennifer rated it:

After reading Cleaving, I can't decide if this is a memoir from the James Frey school of memoirs (i.e. details and events are so outrageous as to seem more fictional than not) or if Julie Powell is actually telling the truth and therefore needs some serious serious mental health help.

This really isn't the story of Powell learning to butcher. Instead, it's the story of Powell's trainwreck marriage and personal life, which is so gruesome that you *want* to look away, but you just *can More...

5 comments like (21 people liked it)

Feb 01, 2012

Lisa rated it:

I'll give Julie Powell one thing: She's brave. She's incredibly flawed and puts everything out there in this book. And I do mean everything. I guess there's such a thing as airing too much of your dirty laundry! I won't be spoiling anything by telling you this, since it's all revealed early in the book, but Julie -- who wrote lovingly about her marriage in her first book, Julie & Julia, does an abrupt about face in this book. It's a real shocker, this one. After she got famous, her life fell apa More...

2 comments like (2 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2010

Carin rated it:

It has been a long time since I read Julie & Julia (although I saw the movie much more recently). I was confused about people who'd read the book more recently talking about how Julie was unlikable. But I can get that. I don't readmemoirs about people I want to be friends with - I'm fine with them being slightly unpleasant since I won't have to deal with them once I'm done with the book. Ms. Powell is very self-centered, obsessive, and it's uncomofrtable watching how she hurts her husband and More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

May 16, 2010

La Petite Américaine rated it:

Look.

Let's be honest here.

No one likes Julie Powell.

We all bought her first book because of the lovable giant that is Julia Child and the story of a promising culinary project. We had enough of those pleasant distractions to kindly ignore the loudmouth attention-whore Julie Powell, despite the fact that she was running around the background screaming "Look at me! Look at me, damn you!!" (What do you want to bet she was a theater major?)

More...

19 comments like (53 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2010

Heather rated it:

this book made me furious. i read julie & julia and liked it well enough, although i felt like there was no strong resolution of the narrative like you need - even in a memoir. then i saw the movie and like most people thought meryl streep was amazing and julie was eh.

after some thought i decided this was because julie powell is fundamentally a little bit unlikeable. i think they cast perky amy adams in it to try to counter that quality she has, but to no avail. she's just got enoug More...

4 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jun 29, 2011

Danielle rated it:

The cover of Cleaving reminds the reader that the book is written by Julie Powell, the author of the NY Times best-seller Julie & Julia, which is now a major motion picture. I do not feel that I am going out on a limb when I say that I doubt anyone will be making any major motion pictures out of Cleaving. In her second memoir, Ms. Powell (and I use that prefix for reasons abundantly clear to anyone else who felt somewhat unsatisfied by the lack of resolution of a certain major plot point) has st More...

0 comments like

Jan 27, 2012

Mindy rated it:

julie powell rose to fame when the book she wrote from her cooking blog was turned into a movie. we all saw and loved "julie & julia." including me. amy adams & meryl streep were unforgettable and their characters were charming. however, the movie did not tell the story of julie's marriage well. this book is where she tells that story. julie turns to butchery as her next exploration in who she is and essentially hacks her marriage to death at the same time, leaving both animal ca More...

0 comments like

Dec 28, 2011

Barry rated it:

I'm surprised at how good this book is. I couldn't get through Julie Powell's first book, Julie and Julia. I only liked the film because of the parts that are about Julia Child, and because of Meryl Streep's performance. I found the Powell character irritating and boring.

Her second book, which has gotten some scathing reviews and many personal attacks on its author, promised more of the same. Fortunately, it breaks that promise.

It's another memoir. This time, unable to stop b More...

0 comments like

Dec 17, 2011

Ocean rated it:

gah! i listened to the audio version of this book while i was going through a bad patch mentally and needed something, anything, to distract me from my thoughts while at work. i don't know WHY i thought this book would make me feel any better, but i'd heard that it was bad and i kinda love bad media.
but. oh. my. god. i didn't know what i was in for. let's mix in gruesome tales of cutting up animals with jerky butchers with tales of being a jerk to someone who loves you! sounds great!
More...

0 comments like

Aug 06, 2011

Melanie rated it:

If you can get past all the butchery meat metaphors and cheesy references to “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”, you are left with a book about the author’s affairs (oh and some random travel stories and recipes are included too..). So, she talks about cheating on her husband, her obsession with her lover and random one night stands, but I never really understood why she butchers her marriage. It was hard to understand why she wrote the book- seems like she never really shares why she cheats (marriage i More...

0 comments like

Jul 30, 2011

Rebecca rated it:

Follow up to Julie and Julia. And while I wasn't a big fan of that book, this book was even more blah. This book was more personal and like, why do we care? You aren't famous, but you think you are. Turns out the marriage in the first book wasn't all happy-go-lucky as the author made is seem. In this book she is in the middle of an affair with an old friend, yet still married to the husband. He knows, but since they have been together so long, neither really want to get a divorce, even though bo More...

0 comments like

Jan 04, 2011

Agatha rated it:

Pelt this book with rotten tomatoes: it stinks!
This is a total flop from the author of JULIE AND JULIA. I truly believe she is
an undiagnosed manic-depressive, narcissistic, insecure alcoholic, but, on top
of that, she has zero morals, is an atheist, and has no compunction about either
one of those either. I'm not just being a prude here: she cheats on her husband
(he knows, cuz, you know, that makes it ok? crazy) with another guy for 2 years;
then, when that guy c More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 13, 2010

Concord Newfree added it

To Julie's Editor: DO YOUR FUCKING JOB!

To Julie's Publisher: All future Powell books will be returned unsold, so don't bother. She was clearly a one-hit wonder.

To the douchebag men who want to bang slutbag Julie: Just run and avoid this hot mess.

To Julie: You had so much potential and you absolutely, positively blew it. Your immature little brain just couldn't help itself and you let your truly sickening view of stranger fucking weigh more heavily in More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Sep 07, 2010

Brianne rated it:

This book was horrible from the beginning. After absolutely adoring Julie & Julia, I thought this would have the quirkiness that I loved about our Julie Powell. What I got was a woman who felt no moral issues about having an affair right under her husbands nose. She tore into meat, never came home, and broke her husband's heart. But even that wasn't the worst offense of this book.

After her first book, it almost seemed as though she didn't write that one. The writing in this book wa More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 11, 2010

Meg rated it:

May we (I speak for the collective of goodreads here) puh-lease add a "negative" star rating, simply and exclusively for Cleaving? Please! If I could give it less I would, but I will settle for a mere "didn't like it" when indeed I hated it. Why did I finish it? I'm embarrassed to say I was rooting for the husband in the end. I was hoping against hope that he would man up and leave this egotistical, manic depressive, selfish, negative, attention seeking slut I used to ca More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jun 09, 2010

Jlaurenmc rated it:

My brother is a vegan, and after reading Julie Powell's latest book Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession, I must say I've now given it some thought. All that talk about meat in its original state turned my stomach. I mean, I find it difficult to eat chicken or beef that I've cooked, just remembering it so recently in its raw bloodiness. So I haven't given up on my eggs, milk, & cheese quite yet, but meat is the furthest thing from something I'm craving at the moment.

Cle More...

0 comments like

May 27, 2010

Alena rated it:

This is the problem with getting most of my books from the library. I walk in without a specific book in mind, browse around, think "why not?" and end up with a disaster.

I'm not a huge fan of Julie Powell anyway. So, she cooked her way through a cookbook. So, since when is that remarkable? There was a time, in our not-too-distant past, when folks used cookbooks on a regular basis. This was considered normal.

BUT. This is neither here nor there.

I ha More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

May 13, 2010

Jessica rated it:

Seriously, this book made me wanted to poke an eye out with Julie Powell's butcher knife. OK, maybe that's a slight exaggeration, but it's not far off. I was so excited to buy this book after enjoying "Julie and Julia." I like food, I like food lit; it would make sense that I'd love this book, right? I finished "Cleaving" knowing that Julie Powell is without a doubt the most narcissistic butcher in the greater New York area. I'm not sure what drives one to write a memoir base More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Apr 19, 2010

Amanda rated it:

This book had so much potential. Julie Powell’s first memoir, Julie and Julia, was a book that I absolutely adored. The movie version was even fairly well done. When I heard that she’d written a second book, I was thrilled! When I saw the fairly epic subtitle (A story of marriage, meat, and obsession) my hopes for this book grew to epic proportions.

Sadly, it fell flat.

The first part of the book wasn’t so bad. In fact, the parts where Julie talked about butchering and how More...

0 comments like

Apr 14, 2010

Patrice rated it:

I confess that I only read about a third of it, and that in the bookstore. And I am so glad that I did that instead of spending money on this book!

I came here (and just checked out the reviews on Amazon) because when I first looked at the contents of "Cleaving," I was positive that it would do poorly, and that most folks would hate it. Not that I wanted that for Julie Powell -- I enjoyed her first book quite a bit, and had fun at the film they made (with great liberties More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Feb 11, 2010

Erika rated it:

As Dorothy Parker once said, "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

This book was dense, intensely personal, grotesque, in the same way that a microscope can be grotesque in its intimate examination, and not that much fun to read, which was really the killing blow.

The butchery sections were interesting, even poetic, but the heavy-handedness of her constant relation of how she saw her marriage and affair in compar More...

1 comment like (6 people liked it)

Feb 08, 2010

Bookmarks Magazine rated it:

So if you enjoyed Julie & Julia, you shouldn't spoil that experience by reading this book--or even the rest of this review. Cleaving aspires to boldly lay bare the inner workings of a global industry and an intimate relationship, but it falls short in both spheres. Though Powell is at her best when writing about meat, these sections are too few--and too graphic--to sustain the story. "The squeamish--morally and otherwise--should read elsewhere," advises the New York Times Book Review. More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 29, 2010

Pumpkinbear rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

2 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 27, 2010

Elevate Difference rated it:

Julie Powell wrote a blog called the Julie/Julia Project, which was turned into a book entitled Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously, and last summer Julie & Julia hit the big screen as a movie featuring Meryl Streep. Admittedly, Julie & Julia was a heartwarming, sticky sweet account of Powell’s mission to cook her way through Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking. The blog/book/movie led us to believe that Powell was a somewhat quirky woman who loved to cook, occasionally More...

2 comments like (6 people liked it)

Jan 23, 2010

Leeanna rated it:

Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession, by Julie Powell

Julie Powell's penchant for whining carries from her previous novel into "Cleaving." While reading the book, I actually felt very bogged down and depressed, especially after seeing page after page of her whining about her troubled marriage and pathetic affair. I call her affair pathetic because even after it's clear the other man doesn't want her, she stalks him, writes to him, texts him, and doesn't give up More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 18, 2010

Karyn rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like

Jan 11, 2010

Christine rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

0 comments like