Julie and Julia - great flick but why it should be more...

Hey Folks.

I'm like a dog with a bone in a concrete yard. With no place to bury it I must carry it around, protect it, and chew on it until it is used up. Such is my desire to know more about Julia Child and Julie Powell after viewing the film a few weeks ago (Aug. 15). A great flick, by the way. Somehow, I could not get the concept of these two women out of my mind.

As with other things in life, research can be like a splinter under your fingernail. Until you've worked it out, it is a constant reminder that it's there, and you must do something about it, very soon.

The bone is the desire to do, the splinter is the reminder that if you do not "do" soon, you could wind up with a nasty infection. Such has been my quest. I'm driven to know more, and more, and more.

Aside from loving a great flick, I'm an avid reader so the week after viewing the film, I was at Amazon.com looking for books to read on either of these ladies. I would up ordering several:

• Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously by Julie Powell
• My Life in France by by Julia Child and Alex Prud'Homme
• Mastering The Art of French Cooking, Volume One (1) (Vol 1) (by Julia Child, Louisette Bertholle, Simone Beck, and Sidonie Coryn)

I've found the movie did not follow much of the book, in detail. There is always so much more to be gleaned by reading a book as opposed to viewing a film. The film version always seems to cut out details that make the relationships viable in the first place.

A couple of details I learned that were left out of the film:

• Julia met Paul Child while both were working for the O.S.S. (Office of Strategic Services) around the time of WWII.
• Julie Powell was working for a government agency at the scene of 9/11 when she decided to undertake the "Julie/Julia" project.

Obviously, these are only a couple of things, but there is much more. I suppose it would be redundant to go into too many details here. And it would be boring for YOU, as you are not carrying around a dead bone with a splinter under your fingernail.

I am savoring all three books at the same time as I'm reading one work of fiction and digesting more on cathedrals built in the middle ages (possible posts for another time, eh?).

(ADVICE: If you've seen the film, and want to know more without buying up the store, get this one: "Julie and Julia: My Year of Cooking Dangerously" by Julie Powell - It's FABULOUS!)

And these, in my leisure time, of which, there is precious little. At least I have a variety of books of interest to help wind my mind down from the day to day business of caring for The Russter and working online to make a few bucks to help meet ends around here.

Thanks to Birthday dollars, I had the funds to purchase exactly what I wanted this year, books to renew the spirit... more on this later, maybe.