The Christmas Cookie Club » (Bargain)

Every year at Christmastime, Marnie and her twelve closest girlfriends gather in the evening with batches of beautifully wrapped homemade cookies. Everyone has to bring a dessert and a bottle of wine, but this year, it’s their stories that are especially important. Marnie’s oldest daughter has a risky pregnancy. Jeannie’s father is having an affair with her best friend. Taylor’s life is in financial freefall. Rosie’s husband doesn’t want children, and she has to decide, very soon, the fate of her marriage.

On this evening, at least, they can feel as a group the impulses of sisterly love and conflict, the passion and hopefulness of a new romance, the betrayal and disillusionment some relationships bring, the joys and fears of motherhood, the agony of losing a child, and above all, the love they have for one another. As Marnie says, the Christmas Cookie Club, if it’s anything, is a reminder of delight.

Publishers Weekly

Complete with an enhanced CD featuring real cookie recipes, Pearlman's effort tries hard not to be that lump of coal that it really is. A group of women dubbing themselves “The Christmas Cookie Club” gather together each holiday season to share new recipes, drink countless bottles of wine, and trade gossip. Zackman delivers a competent but overly sappy reading that does little to ameliorate the cliché-ridden material. An Atria hardcover. (Oct.)