Julie and Julia

June 13, 2005
Powell became an Internet celebrity with her 2004 blog chronicling her yearlong odyssey of cooking every recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking
. A frustrated secretary in New York City, Powell embarked on "the Julie/Julia project" to find a sense of direction, and both the cooking and the writing quickly became all-consuming. Some passages in the book are taken verbatim from the blog, but Powell expands on her experience and gives generous background about her personal life: her doting husband, wacky friends, evil co-workers. She also includes some comments from her "bleaders" (blog readers), who formed an enthusiastic support base. Powell never met Julia Child (who died last year), but the venerable chef's spirit is present throughout, and Powell imaginatively reconstructs episodes from Child's life in the 1940s. Her writing is feisty and unrestrained, especially as she details killing lobsters, tackling marrowbones and cooking late into the night. Occasionally the diarist instinct overwhelms the generally tight structure and Powell goes on unrelated tangents, but her voice is endearing enough that readers will quickly forgive such lapses. Both home cooks and devotees of Bridget Jones–style dishing will be caught up in Powell's funny, sharp-tongued but generous writing. Agent, Sarah Chalfant.

Starred review from September 15, 2005
After one particularly trying day, Powell came home from work in New York City and found solace in a bowl of Potage Parmentier. The nourishment from this simple potato and leek soup proved to be not only balm for the author's battered and bruised soul but also a wonderful source of inspiration. As an antidote to her "soul-sucking" secretarial job, her fears about when -if ever -she might have children, and the general monotony of married life, Powell would cook everything in Julia Child's classic cookbook, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking". Thus began the Julie/Julia Project, a blog in which Powell recorded her experiences trying to master 524 different French dishes. She deftly sprinkles in a few "imagined" snippets from Child's life into her own story, and Powell's wonderfully acerbic voice is the perfect complement to her deliciously witty book about food, family, friends, and love. Readers with a taste for the kind of sharp, clever culinary flavored writing found in Nigel Slater's "Toast" or Ruth Reichl's "Tender at the Bone" will find "Julie and Julia" to be a rare treat. Highly recommended for all public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 5/15/05.] -John Charles, Scottsdale P.L., AZ

Copyright 2005 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

August 1, 2005
In her adolescence, Powell came across " Joy of Sex" and " Mastering the Art of French Cooking " and forever linked the two in her mind, finding something absolutely sensual about cooking. Years later, living in New York with her husband and coming to the awful realization that her temp job as a secretary was about to turn full-time, she devises the ambitious assignment of cooking 524 recipes in one year and chronicling the experience on a blog. As she moves from simple potato soup to more complicated crepes, Powell engages the help of her husband, brother, and friend, as well as the hundreds of fans she attracts to her blog. A recipe calling for bone marrow prompts a long and hilarious search for a local butcher, and a meal that "tasted like really good sex." The tougher the shopping and cooking assignment, the more sensual the experience, as Powell discovers incredible determination and hidden talents in cooking, writing, and living. This is a joyful, humorous account of one woman's efforts to find meaning in her life. (Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2005, American Library Association.)