A Review of 2009

In thinking ahead about what I want to read in 2010, it seems like a good thing to do to reflect back on what I read in 2009, which included 69 books either read or listened to. Some of my favorites were:

Julie and Julia by Julie Powell
Devil in the White City by Erik Larson
The Constant Princess by Philippa Gregory
The Senator’s Wife by Sue Miller
Beach Music by Pat Conroy
The Boleyn Inheritance by Philippa Gregory
South of Broad by Pat Conroy
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner
The Year of Pleasures by Elizabeth Berg
Souvenir by Therese Fowler (a classmate of mine in the English department at NC State)
Beyond Belief by Josh Hamilton
Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson with David Oliver Relin

Last week, USA Today marked the end of the decade and listed the bestselling books of the 2000s. I have read them all. See the article here.

Cleaving

Marriage isn’t easy. If you didn’t already know this and are thinking of one day being married to someone, you should try reading Cleaving: A Story of Marriage, Meat, and Obsession by Julie Powell. The book was published this year as a follow-up to Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen, the memoir (about a blog) that combined with Julia Child’s autobiography, My Life in France, turned into a movie, Julie & Julia. That movie turned out to be the most fun one I’ve seen all year.

Julie and Julia gave us such a rosy picture of marriage. Julie’s husband, Eric, though he didn’t completely understand why his wife would want to cook her way through a Julia Child cookbook in a year, supported her decision. Probably spending a year eating all of that wonderful food helped just a little. In the movie, the actor cast as Eric, Chris Messina, was a wonderful depiction of the Eric I enjoyed in the book version. I also thought Amy Adams was a great choice, though I was well aware of how wholesome she was compared to the Julie in the book version.

I was thrilled that Powell had published another memoir to follow up her first one, and I just finished reading Cleaving this morning. It doesn’t take long before you know first that Julie has been having an affair with someone and then you learn that Eric has been too. Each knows the other is seeing someone outside of the confines of their marriage, but they almost never talk about it, they just keep growing further apart.

Then Julie embarks upon a two-part journey that involves learning to become a butcher, first spending six months as an apprentice two hours outside of New York City, and second, traveling to South America, Africa and Asia to learn more about how butchery is done in other parts of the world. She undergoes a personal transformation during her travels alone, and though it is no Eat, Pray, Love, it is enough for she and Eric to decide after she returns to New York that their marriage is worth saving. It’s a good thing. I have to say I like them together.

Julie & Julia

This weekend I went to see the film, Julie and Julia. I’ve been looking forward to seeing it for months. This spring, I listened to My Life in France, Julia Child’s autobiography, and read Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen. My Life in France was nominated by a fellow book club member for our 2009 list, and we’ve now all read it. The book version of Julie and Julia was one of the things that really got me thinking about starting up a blog.

One of my favorite things about My Life in France was Julia’s husband, Paul. So often when I read a book and really take a liking to a particular character, I am disappointed in the casting later when I watch the movie version. I already believed Meryl Streep was up to the task of playing Julia after reading The Devil Wears Prada and then seeing Streep’s spot-on interpretation of Miranda Priestly, a role which won her an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress in 2007. I have to say, though, that I was nervous about Stanley Tucci, the actor who plays Paul Child (Note: Tucci also played in The Devil Wears Prada as Nigel, the fashion assistant.). I thought he was wonderfully supportive of his wife’s hobby-turned-profession, and he just seemed perfect for Julia. Now that I’ve seen Julie and Julia, I can’t imagine a more perfect Paul. He was just as I hoped he’d be!

I think Amy Adams was also wonderful in her role as Julie. She was a cleaner version of the Julie who wrote the book, and I liked both versions of Julie. In the movie, I particularly liked the portrayal of Julie’s office life, and what a wonderful release it was for her to go home from it every evening, crack open Mastering the Art of French Cooking, and make something wonderful.

Overall, I really thought the movie captured the best of both books and wove them seamlessly. Plus, the movie was just a lot of fun.

Summer Reading

Memorial Day is the first day of summer vacation for schoolchildren in Metro Atlanta, and the start of summer always makes me think ahead to what I’ll be reading this season. Several years ago, an English major friend and I began creating a summer reading list. Our reading group has grown and here are the 12 books we’re reading this season.

Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
Irish Girls About Town by Maeve Binchy, Marian Keyes and Cathy Kelly
My Life in France by Julia Child
Sarah’s Key by Tatiana de Rosnay
Beyond Belief by Josh Hamilton
Knit Two by Kate Jacobs
Here’s the Story: Surviving Marcia Brady and Finding my True Voice by Maureen McCormick
Sundays at Tiffany’s by James Patterson
The Reader by Bernhard Schlink
Six Wives: The Queens of Henry VIII by David Starkey
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates