Jennifer's profile

6 ratings | 3 reviews
avg rating: 3.33

Jennifer's bookshelves

read (6)
currently-reading (4)

to-read (1)
need-to-re-read (2)

Jennifer is currently reading

	09/04 Jennifer is currently reading: Headache Survival PA (Paperback) by Robert S. Ivker bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
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	08/31 Jennifer is currently reading: Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (Paperback) by Jared Diamond bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
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	08/31 Jennifer is currently reading: Harvest for Hope (Hard copy) by Jane Goodall bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
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Jennifer's recent updates (rss)

September 04

Jennifer is currently reading:
Headache Survival PA (Paperback)
by Robert S. Ivker
bookshelves: currently-reading

my rating:

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August 31

Jennifer is currently reading:
Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (Paperback)
by Jared Diamond
bookshelves: currently-reading

my rating:

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Jennifer is currently reading:
Harvest for Hope (Hard copy)
by Jane Goodall
bookshelves: currently-reading

my rating:

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August 20

Jennifer gave

to:
Fast Food Nation (Paperback)
by Eric Schlosser
bookshelves: need-to-re-read

my rating:

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Jennifer gave

to:
The Omnivore's Dilemma (Hardcover)
by Michael Pollan
bookshelves: need-to-re-read

my rating:

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Jennifer gave

to:
Hope's Edge: The Next Diet for a Small Planet (Hardcover)
by Frances Moore Lappé, Anna Lappe

my rating:

read in August, 2007

Jennifer said: "3 1/2 Stars.
"

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New comment on Writerlibrarian's review of Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously

Jennifer wrote: "Ha! Thanks for the response! It really is rather difficult to fit all the nuances of reviewing a boo...more "

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August 17

Jennifer gave

to:
Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously (Paperback)
by Julie Powell

my rating:

recommended for: No One
read in August, 2007

Jennifer said: "I love the concept, I really do; not so much the finished product.

Had she not made the fuuny reference to my favorite line in Casablanca near the begininning of the book, I never would have been able to finish it. The thought of finding another ...more I love the concept, I really do; not so much the finished product.

Had she not made the fuuny reference to my favorite line in Casablanca near the begininning of the book, I never would have been able to finish it. The thought of finding another gem like that made me stick with it even when I wanted to throw Julie out of a twenty-story window. The whiny, self-absorbed, melodramtic, narcissistic, trite (yet on occasion deliciously funny) Julie Powell decides to take up a project to add meaning to her life, or at least to distract herself from dealing with it: She decides that she is going to cook every single recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking and that she is going to do it in the time span of a year.

Julie never mentions how many hours she actually works in a week at her "oh pity me, the lowly secretary who still makes enough money to live in New York and buy enough food to cook every single recipe in the Julia Child MtAoFC cookbook" job, but I honestly have a very difficult time believing that she worked full time, commuted, did the grocery shopping, cooked every single recipe in the book, wrote a blog, and yet still had time to watch Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (I mean, really, does anyone that gave this book five stars actually cook?!?) She does make the point very clear that she didn't clean at all that year. And she did allow herself to gain an untold amount of weight rather than work out. I suppose that gave her a little extra time to devote to this project. And on top of all that she expected her husband and her friends to support her insanity, wholeheartedly and unabashededly. Eric should have kept a blog for the year about putting up with Julie!

For a book about cooking, there is a sad lack of description regarding the various recipes. Sure, she does go into detail about excavating bone marrow and dismembering lobsters, but what about the food? I didn't get the impression that she actually loves food so much as that she has a gluttonous relationship to it. Don't want to deal with your feelings? That's okay, just stuff them down with extremely high fat foods and ignore the consequences. I have no patience for this sort of self defeatist behavior; the average overweight american who refuses to take responsibility for their own health and instead assumes a false sense of pride over being carefree about their food choices. And then just accepts a dependence upon pharmaceuticals to manage the ill effects. Is it really any wonder that heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States?

This may have been an entertaining blog, but the "My bleaders like me, they really like me!" tone did not translate very well into a book. If you have any interest whatsoever in her story, save yourself the money (and grief) of reading this book and just read her blog blogs.salon.com/0001399/2002/0...

...less "

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August 16

Jennifer marked as to-read:
Silent Spring (Paperback)
by Rachel Carson
bookshelves: to-read

my rating:

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Jennifer gave

to:
Bibliotherapy: The Girl's Guide to Books for Every Phase of Our Lives (Paperback)
by Beverly West

my rating:

recommended for: Maybe a teenage cousin who isn't particularly fond of books
read in August, 2007

Jennifer said: "Since I never seem to tire of reading books about books, this was at least an entertaining and light read. Lacking, but not so terrible that I couldn't slog my way through it.

The authors did not strike me as true readers; rather as women who came...more "

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