Customer Reviews

The Christmas Cookie Club: A Novel

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(22)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

This has got to be one of the most convoluted books I've read in a long time. It was nice having each character represented by a cookie recipe, but there were sections where the flow of the story came to a screeching halt while the reader endured the history of wheat, almonds, baking soda vs. baking powder, etc. While these baking facts were interesting, they detracted from the storyline and chopped the book up into frantic episodes.

There were other inconsistencies not caught during the editing process, such as referring to the musical group "The Monkees" as "The Monkeys" and one particularly confusing discussion of eyecolor. Luke supposedly had combination brown/blue eyes. In the next sentence he had green eyes. Later he had glass green eyes.

The concept of this book was great. I had high hopes. The author, Ann Pearlman, was nominated for both the Pulitzer and the National Book Award for a previous memoir. What happened? Why was this book seemingly thrown together?

(Prologue)...."I AM THE HEAD COOKIE bitch and this is my party. The Christmas Cookie Club is always on the first Monday of December. Mark it on your calendar. Twelve of us gather, and thirteen dozen cookies wrapped in packages. Home-made, of course. We bring a dish to pass around and a bottle of wine".......

The Christmas Cookie Club, is a tradition started some sixteen years earlier. Marnie (the head cookie bitch) and eleven of her closest friends, have kept this tradition going. The friends share how they met, their joys, their struggles, their disappointments, and more. They laugh together and cry together. Their stories are told in twelve alternating chapters, each of which includes a tasty sounding Christmas cookie recipe for readers to try.

My Thoughts: Certainly the message in this story is not a new one: close friends help each other through tough times, and are there to share the good times as well. Personally, I've read a few too many stories about friendship over the years. None of the characters were memorable or even the least bit endearing. I did enjoy the recipes, and I do see how some readers who enjoy light fiction, might think this was a great holiday read. For me, there just wasn't enough depth to the story, and you never really get to know any of the women. I understand that CBS Films has picked up the movie rights, and a sequel to this book is in the works as well. If you are looking for a quick, light holiday read, and enjoy stories about friendship, give this one a try.

I picked up this book with the intent to get myself into the Holiday spirit after a year filled with curveball after curveball.

This book lived up to the promise I had for it! Not only am in the Holiday spirit, but now I am wanting to bake cookies, play some christmas music and start my only Christmas Cookie Club.

The festive holiday cheer of the book made my heart happy. The friendships in the book made me think and cherish all of the close friendships I have. The tough times and heartfelt memories these women shared made me shed a tear and feel for them, as if they were my own friends. Maybe thats because all 10 women were easy to relate to, therefore, I put my friends and myself in their shoes.

A GREAT holiday read and very easy to get thru. It only took me about 6 full hours to get thru the entire thing. The author keeps you reading by keeping you wondering what each women's story is and why she acts and is the way she is today because of it.

I'd recommend this to anybody looking to get in the Holiday spirit and looking for a good latte and cold afternoon read. Oh and of course, a copy of this book with be included with my Christmas Cookie Club invitations to my closest friends :)

I wanted to like this book, I really did. It is the story of a group of close-knit women (many of whom have known each other for years) who get together every December to exchange cookies and updates on their lives. Some of the characters (especially the protagonist/narrator) are enaging but the storyline jumps around and is very confusing to follow. There are 12 women in the group, along with their assorted daughters/children, and it was very difficult to keep them straight, especially as you would read only part of a person's story in one chapter and then not pick it up again for several more chapters (by which time you would have forgotten who she was).

I also found the themes of each character's problems pretty formulaic: 1 woman is recovering from cancer, 1 just lost her son, 1 is a former prostitute, 1 daughter is a pregnant teenager who has decided not to go on to college, etc. In many places it reads like a bad movie of the week.

Still, some of the characters are engaging and there is the bonus of a cookie recipe beginning each chapter (12 cookie recipes). I kept reading, hoping this book would turn out to be better than I thought it was but, alas, it came to no great revelation in its conclusion...and that redeeming ending was not to be.

The Christmas Cookie Club is not a typical cheery Christmas book. It is 12 stories of 12 different women and the good and bad of their lives. They join together once a year and exchange cookies and stories from the year. It is told through the eyes of the hostess, Marnie. She recalls her life with each of the women--how they met, a significant story from the past, or her own observations of them.

After the first couple of chapters I was unsure if I would really enjoy this book because it seemed a little too sad and melodramatic. One scene was a little too gory and descriptive for my taste and I considered not going on, but I gave it another shot and I am glad that I did. There is a transition from the sadness to hopefulness. I was drawn into each woman's story and found them to be real and not easily tied up in a neat bow.

Ultimately, this book is about friendship and love. It is about what binds these women together and how they support each other through joy and sorrow. It ends with lots of questions of the future, but with one certainty--the Cookie Club will continue and these women will support each other.

The book consists of 12 chapters--one for each woman. Each chapter begins with a cookie recipe and ends with the history of one of the ingredients. The history part reminded me a bit of Alton Brown's Good Eats. I enjoyed it and even thought about the history of the ingredients as I was doing my own holiday baking.
My main complaint about this book is the number of characters. I started to get a little lost about who was who by the end. It didn't detract from the overall meaning, but they just blended after a while. I could easily see this as a movie and that would probably make it a little easier to keep straight.

I do think this book is geared towards women over 40. I am in my early 30s and enjoyed the book, but could not relate to most of the characters. I could see a bit of the connection with the younger versions, but I'm sure it would be more meaningful if I understood the older versions, too.

Very much worth the read. I think I am going to try out at least one of the cookie recipes, too.

I love cooking, particularly baking, so I was thrilled to find a book that incorporated cookie recipes in an allegedly fun story of how women's friendships sustain us even as they evolve (job changes, moves, family trauma, etc.). My excitement was short-lived.

As other reviewers have noted, it was somewhat difficult to keep track of the characters. There are 13 members of the Cookie Club and a handful of other characters who pop up throughout the book. The Cookie Club members are dealing with various personal issues (a parent's infidelity, unemployment, infertility) but since each member gets only a chapter, the reader doesn't have much of an opportunity to identify with or care about them. I found some of the situations (and the dialogue) cliched.

The only suspense was whether the narrator's daughter's baby was ok and I thought that storyline was overly drawn out. Given the book's topic, I doubt readers really expect a bad outcome. The storyline of the narrator's younger daughter's pregnancy (from an interracial relationship with an aspiring rapper who she met when he was serving time in prison) was equally annoying as the narrator seems to repeatedly pat herself on the back for being so open-minded and supportive.

Recipes include Pecan Butter Balls, Chocolate-Almond Bonbons, Star Cookie Trees, Pennsylvania Dunkers, Hermit Cookies, Buttery Pecan Rounds, Fortune Cookies, Hanukkah Fruit Candies, Mahyoosa, Cheeseburger Cookies, Double-Dipped Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies, Peanut Clusters, and Molasses-Ginger Crisps.

In addition to a recipe, each chapter includes a brief history and discussion of an ingredient (such as flour, sugar, butter, vanilla and nuts). I found these features to be vaguely interesting at first but distracting from the story. They reminded me of a fourth grade homework assignment with short, choppy sentences copied from an old encyclopedia.

I barely got through this book and I unfortunately cannot recommend it. I'd advise checking it out of the library rather than buying it - you may not want to pass it on to your friends when you finish with it.

"The Christmas Cookie Club" is a short novel which takes place on one December evening. The event is the annual Christmas Cookie party where twelve women exchange cookies and donate some for charity. Each cookie delivery comes with a story, a recipe and a few historical facts about the ingredients. The host of the event is Marnie, who started the club, created the rules and has had a complex life herself.

Even though each chapter is supposed to be about the woman presenting the cookies, it isn't since we hear the story through Marnie's ears and are privy to her thoughts. So basically Marnie goes on tangents, as we all do from time to time, when a word or a phrase reminds her of another event. This is a short novel which in turn is divided into twelve short stories. There are many characters but I didn't get vested in any of them and the narration is mainly done by Marnie. We find out about the ups and downs of the lives of these women, with some insightful comments which get lost somewhere in the narration.

I found this book a bit convoluted, but not hard to read. The many characters were not easy to keep track of, especially since their spouses, parents and children were all part of the interwoven story. I have to admit that the characters are personable and likeable (mostly) and each story is delivered passionately but due to the circumstances, where each woman has a tragic occurrence or a secret, the uber-drama seems to take over from time to time.
For me, melodrama only works if I can make and emotional connection with the character, but because Ann Perlman was trying to keep the book to a reasonable size (or even short) the depth and exploration of character wasn't there.

At the beginning of every chapter there is a cookie recipe and at the end Ms. Pearlman wrote a short history of some ingredient (chocolate, salt, etc.). I think that the recipes and the historical information were certainly a nice touch, if you don't like it then skip over them since they are in between chapters. I don't know why people complain about them taking away from the story since they are not part of the story in the first place - nor do they add any insights or information - they are "extras" and should be treated as such. Maybe if they were included as appendices less people would have complained but as I said, I thought it was properly done and a nice touch.

Please keep in mind, that as a man, chick-lit usually doesn't speak to me.
For example I find it ridiculous that one moment everyone is in tears and the next a "dance party" breaks out.
Does this really happen?
Do women really dance around the kitchen table like they are in some kind of Nora Ephron movie?

If this really happens, good for you and more power.

I was about 50 pages into it and I sat down and told my husband I wasn't sure about this book. He asked me why and I said that it was too rushed. The characters weren't gelling for me, and in a book like this that is a MUST for me.

And then I got Charlene's story. The author mentions the sadness in her eyes, and longing and then drops a bomb on us....and it got to me. I started to cry and I enjoy a story that can really hit home for me.

As I read further into the book more tears came, a bit of laughter, I even saw my husband and myself in the backstory of two of the characters, all good things, but (and you knew this was coming) it was too rushed!

This book only has 270 pages....at least 40 of those pages (maybe more, I didn't count) are devoted to recipes and little bits of information on the ingredients in some of the recipes that leaves us about 230 pages to get to know 12 women, to connect with them enough to feel something for their characters. That is less than 20 pages per person! Doesn't really work for me, not in a story like this.

The author could have easily added on another 100-150 pages-explored the lives of the women more, made us care a bit more, made us feel more. And I realize that calling yourself a 'bitch' for some women is about showing they are strong, but for me it was unnecessary almost vulgar here. I didn't mind it, but I didn't think it was needed.

This book is an easy weekend read, which is fine, but it could have been so much more.

I REALLY wanted to love this book. I love to bake, I host my own Christmas Cooke Exchange, etc. The layout of the book is both fun but at the same time kind of a distraction. Each chapter is about one of the women in the club, begins with a recipe, and also ends with a little blurb about one of the ingredients in the cookies. While I think it was cute and probably too tempting for the author NOT to include the recipes, the chapters were too much of a distraction for me. Each chapter was about a different character, in relation to the main character, Marnie. But I felt like I was just getting a little glimpse, and in some cases, I would wonder why this person's story was highlighted. There was some drama- affairs, deaths in the family, babies, etc., but everything was too glossed over. I needed more meat to the story. And I found it extremely annoying the way they kept refer to themselves at Cookie Bitches. I loved the idea of this book, but at the end of the day, there was just not enough to it.

This book concerns Marnie and eleven of her closest friends who form a cookie club. The book leads the reader through stories about Marnie meeting these friends and the hardships and problems they experience as well as some of their happier moments. Their problems will appear extreme in some situations, it's hard to believe someone could have that much bad luck!

The characters are all very likable, they appear warm and friendly. Their camaraderie is evident. Their dialogue and stories are entertaining, the reader will feel as if he/she is there with all of them, listening. The reader will also pick up some great Christmas cookie recipes as well as learn some history behind some baking ingredients. The author does a great job incorporating those recipes into the story, everything fits perfectly.

Overall, this is an entertaining read right before or during Christmas. The reader will be reminded of her/his closest friends and maybe a few nice stories. This book is recommended to adult readers.