REVIEW and GIVEAWAY: Cleaving by Julie Powell (audiobook)

From the Publisher's Website:

Julie Powell thought cooking her way through Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking was the craziest thing she'd ever do--until she embarked on the voyage recounted in her new memoir, CLEAVING.

Her marriage challenged by an insane, irresistible love affair, Julie decides to leave town and immerse herself in a new obsession: butchery. She finds her way to Fleischer's, a butcher shop where she buries herself in the details of food. She learns how to break down a side of beef and French a rack of ribs--tough, physical work that only sometimes distracts her from thoughts of afternoon trysts.

The camaraderie at Fleischer's leads Julie to search out fellow butchers around the world--from South America to Europe to Africa. At the end of her odyssey, she has learned a new art and perhaps even mastered her unruly heart.

About the Author:

I was born and raised in Austin, Texas. After graduating from a northeastern liberal arts college with an incredibly useful double major in theater and fiction writing, I embarked, with husband-to-be Eric in tow, upon a seven-year foray into New York City's dizzying wealth of temp jobs. This enlightening tour of desperate dead-end jobs culminated in a year-long blogging endeavor, "The Julie/Julia Project," which ended in late August of 2003. I now write in my pajamas for a living - long may this career path continue. I live in a "loft" in Long Island City, Queens, with my long-suffering husband, three cats, one snake, and a 110-pound dog named Robert.



 My Thoughts:

I have not had an opportunity to read Ms. Powell's first book, Julie and Julia as of yet. Whether that was detrimental to my understanding of Cleaving I don't know. I do know that I found this audiobook to be a bit whiny. Maybe that is because it is after all, a memoir and it may have been a whiny time in Ms. Powell's life. I found the shifts from the tales of her life to the times in the butcher shop jarring. Whether this would have happened if I was reading rather than listening - again, I don't know.

Ms. Powell reads the book herself. Her voice is fine; she does not read in a monotone but there was something lacking when she was trying to "read" in another voice for different characters. Not a big deal overall.

I also suspect that the reading of the butchering details might be easier than the listening although one could easily blank them out if one wanted. I have butchered  the chickens here on the farm so it's not like I haven't been there with small animals....

Cleaving is available at Borders.com

Now on to the giveaway!

Thanks to Hachette Books I have THREE copies of Cleaving for my readers! How do you win? It's easy! But first a some  rules:

Winners must reside in the US or Canada
Audiobooks cannot be shipped to PO boxes
One Audiobook per winner

MANDATORY ENTRY:

Name a cookbook author Julie Powell admires. You can find out here. Please be sure to leave your email address in your comment so I can contact you if you win. Thank you

EXTRA ENTRIES:

1. Follow my blog publicly. If you already follow, just say so. And thank you.
2. Follow me on twitter and tweet about the giveaway(one per day) - @BrokenTeepee and Hachette Books are giving away 3 copies of Cleaving by Julie Powell (audiobook) @http://tinyurl.com/yfvakdg  #giveaway

3. Blog about this giveaway with a link back to Broken Teepee (this is good for 6 entries so leave 6 comments)
4. Follow my goat Pricilla's Blog publicly. If you already do, just say so. And thank you. 
5. Enter any of my other current giveaways. Good for one entry per...

6. Put me on your blogroll and leave a link where I can find it.

7. Add my button to your blog and leave me a link where I can find it. (Good for 5 entries)



All entries need to be in by 9PM MST on January 12th when I will go to Random.org to choose the winners. They will have 48 hours to respond or I will pick new ones.  Good luck everyone!


Disclosure:  I received a gratis copy of Cleaving(audiobook) from Hachette Books for review. Any opinions expressed are my honest opinions and were not impacted by the receipt of the free book.

Category: BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Format: AUDIO BOOK

Subformat: CD (AUDIO)

Edition: Unabridged

Publish Date: 12/1/2009

Price: $29.98/$35.98

ISBN: 9781600245695