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doreen's review

Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen
by Julie Powell

doreen's review
rating:
bookshelves: memoir, non-fiction--food
recommended for: aspiring cooks in small kitchens, anyone who can appreciate a good home-cooked meal

This book is probably one of the books that set me down the path I am on now in terms of my relationship with food and baking. Not only was I inspired to eventually make a food blog (Tasty Fever!), but I was also given the notion that I didn't need a fancy-shmancy kitchen to turn out amazing stuff.

Julie Powell's story of ambition as a way to find herself through an uncommon means really struck a chord with me at the time I was reading it, and it still does now. As with a lot of memoir work, I can see how some people might not like Powell's voice in the book, especially when she's having a kitchen meltdown caused by the failure to pull a complicated French dish with bone marrow together. Perhaps since I'm used to reading blogs of my friends, as well as writing my own, I didn't mind what others may seem to mark as self-absorbed freaking-out. I liked the humour; she seemed to me like someone I could be friends with, or...more This book is probably one of the books that set me down the path I am on now in terms of my relationship with food and baking. Not only was I inspired to eventually make a food blog (Tasty Fever!), but I was also given the notion that I didn't need a fancy-shmancy kitchen to turn out amazing stuff.

Julie Powell's story of ambition as a way to find herself through an uncommon means really struck a chord with me at the time I was reading it, and it still does now. As with a lot of memoir work, I can see how some people might not like Powell's voice in the book, especially when she's having a kitchen meltdown caused by the failure to pull a complicated French dish with bone marrow together. Perhaps since I'm used to reading blogs of my friends, as well as writing my own, I didn't mind what others may seem to mark as self-absorbed freaking-out. I liked the humour; she seemed to me like someone I could be friends with, or at least know and have a drink with time to time. In other words, her actions, cursing and crying, seemed honest and real to me.

Although at times I felt a little bogged-down in some of the relationship dramas she had with her friends, the book on the whole had enough personality to carry through the traumas of an ill-cooked dinner, as well as the wonders when everything, even despite a city-wide power outage, comes together beautifully.

In other words, her tale of cooking her way through Julia Child's book is a very personal and personable tale that I was able to relate to, having dealt with my share of tiny apartment and house kitchens. After reading the book, I began to little-by-little try out new recipes, which eventually erupted into the explosion of predominantly baked goods I now turn out weekly--thanks to the further inspiration of my snack-lovin' boyfriend.

You can find the original blog here. Julie Powell has a new blog out, too. You would think that with as much as I loved her book, I'd be keeping up with her latest shenanigans. Well, I'm lazy like that, plus I guess I've got my own blog to tend to....less

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