Bashing Julie and Julia seems to be something of an obsession for some people (at least as far as Amazon.com reviewers goes). This may be one of the few cases where I've read so many people insisting that the movie is better than the book. I've seen the movie and read the book, and can say that I liked them both...but for different reasons.

The movie is charming, whereas the book is witty. The real Julie Powell can be snarky at times; she can also be an extremely entertaining narrator. She smokes. She swears. And, not only is her husband a marginal character in her memoir, she admits to cheating on him (in her second book, "Cleaving"). Fans of the movie aren't likely to put up with her antics...

...which is a shame, since the book is a riot. It's an uninhibited, winding mess that's as profane as the blog that inspired it.

Another note: Julia Child only makes it into this book in a series of 1-2 page vignettes--the subplot is nowhere near as developed as the movie, and can be quite difficult to follow if you're not familiar with Child's life already. If you're looking for more Julia Child, check out her own memoir, My Life in France.