Julie & Julia

Did you know Julie Powell has had sex? She has!Have you ever heard of Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Julie Powell has!

This book has been on my TBR for five years, and a weeklong vacation was its ticket onto my currently-reading pile. I've seen the movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams multiple times and love it–easily in my top list of movies which could be considered “chick flicks.” After considering it, I think there are two reasons it worked so well for me. The first is that the scenes of Julie Powell are paired with equal-length scenes of Julia Child, so it's both their stories and not just Julie's (in the book, 90% of the book is of course about Julie, with vignettes of Julia plopped down before each chapter). The second is that Julie Powell is played by charismatic Amy Adams.

The real Julie Powell isn't charismatic. She is whiny and pessimistic and self-righteous and turned up to eleven. She looks at adultery like she'd look at chronic nail-biting: a bad habit that adds character. I don't care about how much she curses like many others do.

I didn't hate Julie, though; far from it. In parts, her writing was charming and irreverent. I could honestly see myself reading her blog back when. But it was because of the food, the Project. She was writing about something. But quite a lot of the book wasn't about that. Julie seems to think her life is more interesting (and of course, more haaaaaaaaard) than it actually is. I didn't find myself caring much about all her long anecdotes about her “horrible” job and all the Republicans there (she mentions them ALL THE TIME). Even when they were interesting, sure enough she'd go right back to the whining, the insinuations that no one is really good enough for her (including her husband), and sexsexsexsex. You'd think she was the first to discover it. Perhaps a foretaste to her next book, Cleaving, in which she describes her affair in detail for all the world to see?