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kselleck's review against another edition
3.0
Very thorough book and difficult to get through at times. I’m glad I read through it once, and appreciate ALL the info, but I would not read it again.
retrana2011's review against another edition
2.0
Parts of this book were extremely interesting: Julia's family ancestry, her experience at an east coast college (as she was a California native), her experiences during the war and her travels, how Julia met her husband Paul and how their love story slowly unfolded and how she made her way into the cooking world. On the other hand, there was an excessive amount of detail that needed to be edited out. This detail caused large sections of the book to be rather dry. As a result, staying focused on the plot line and finishing the book was rather challenging.
emjay24's review against another edition
1.0
somewhere, i heard this was good. i started reading the very beginning. i was inspired to learn that julia never even went to cooking school until she was 47 or something like that. and that she never even met the love of her life till she was in her 30s. so, if nothing else, it teaches us that life can begin at any age. the way it was written wasn't storylike enough for me. it didn't flow. so i stopped reading it.
heartofoak1's review against another edition
3.0
while the subject was fascinating this book wasn't. i found the whole thing to be written as if the author had maybe talked to someone who knew someone who was a cousin to someone who used to live next door to someone who delivered mail to julia child. it speaks volumes that it took me MONTHS to slog my through this mess. there were often times i read soem anecdote and was left thinking "and the point of that was...?" or even "that's it?" good, maybe, for a door stop.
ambermarshall's review against another edition
emotional
funny
informative
slow-paced
3.0
FINALLY DONE. If you want to know the names, spouses, professions and connections of every person Julia Child had contact with, this book will tell you. I found myself skimming through a lot of passages about who people were and whom they married and what positions they held. Too much tedious minutiae.
It was nice to find out more about Julia Child (aside from her show and that she had worked for the OSS I didn't know anything about her, I didn't know she never had children or that she was from California) and her husband and their relationship was sweet. It's good he was such a journaler and corresponder. There are some funny lines from both of them here and there. Those are probably the best part.
It was nice to find out more about Julia Child (aside from her show and that she had worked for the OSS I didn't know anything about her, I didn't know she never had children or that she was from California) and her husband and their relationship was sweet. It's good he was such a journaler and corresponder. There are some funny lines from both of them here and there. Those are probably the best part.
dooooot's review against another edition
5.0
So I've always loved cooking, and I've always been intrigued by Julia Child. After reading this book, and the things I learned about her, she became my role model. She is an amazing woman who has done some incredible things in her time. Plus, it is well written and does a good job of painting the picture of not only the woman, but her in the context of the times she was living in. A fantastic book that I will read again and again.
captainoz's review against another edition
4.0
I (heart) Julia Child! I didn't know too much about her before reading this biography. It was poorly written, but Julia's liveliness still shines through. And now I can make Julia's kickass Reine de Saba cake!
joli_folie's review against another edition
1.0
This title was recommended because I read (and loved) My Life in France. This is not at all similar and focuses too much on all the other family members that didn't interest me.
myrto229's review against another edition
4.0
Like most biography, I enjoyed this book more for its topic than for its writing and delivery. I really love the story of Julia Child's life, so I waded the sometimes-plodding prose to get at the details of her life in France, her marriage, her relationship with her family, her rise to fame, and her passion for food.
Her life inspires mine in so many ways, and this book definitely let me in on details that contributed to my heroine-worship.
I previously read her autobiography (My Life in France), which, as the title suggests, only covers the years of her life spent in France. My Life in France sparkled with Julia's wit and funny turns of phrase, but Appetite for Life fell prey to the usual trouble with biography: too much recitation of facts. I'm not sure of the remedy, but for a person with as much pizazz and life as Julia had, it seems a shame that her biography isn't as sparkling as she was.
Her life inspires mine in so many ways, and this book definitely let me in on details that contributed to my heroine-worship.
I previously read her autobiography (My Life in France), which, as the title suggests, only covers the years of her life spent in France. My Life in France sparkled with Julia's wit and funny turns of phrase, but Appetite for Life fell prey to the usual trouble with biography: too much recitation of facts. I'm not sure of the remedy, but for a person with as much pizazz and life as Julia had, it seems a shame that her biography isn't as sparkling as she was.