The Christmas Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman
Pocket Books
October 2011
Format: Paperback, 340 pages
First line: My dream flutters away as I open my eyes.
From the back cover: Ann Pearlman’s
irresistible debut novel provides the perfect ingredients for a fun and
touching read about a group of women who gather each year to share a
journey of friendship, hope, heartbreak—and recipes.
Every year at
Christmastime, Marnie and her closest girlfriends mark their calendars
for the cookie exchange. Everyone has to bring a batch of homemade
cookies and a bottle of wine, but this year, it’s their stories that are
especially important—the passion and hopefulness of new romance, the
betrayal and disillusionment some relationships bring, the joys and
fears of motherhood, the stress of financial troubles. On this evening,
at least, the sisterly love they have for one another rises above it
all. Celebrating courage and joy in spite of hard times and honoring the
importance of women’s friendships as well as the embracing bonds of
community, Ann Pearlman’s delightful novel speaks to us all.
My thoughts: This was a fun, quick read. I had picked it up at Target last Christmas, but never got around to reading it so I was determined to read it this holiday season.
Every
year, on the first Monday in December twelve women get together to
share cookies, recipes and stories. The stories mainly cover events of the past year and range from joyous events to sad ones. It is in the telling of the stories that forge the relationships between the women. Even new members tell a story and quickly are enveloped into the group.
I really enjoyed the
format of the book. Each chapter starts with a different ingredient and a detailed description of its history. Then someone’s recipe is given and we get that person’s story. We also got, in the prologue of the book, the rules of the club – rules that are quite strict in some cases – but necessary for the success of the club. I love the idea of this club – they not only bake for the club members, but everyone brings an extra dozen cookies which are then given to a local hospice.
My only complaint about this book involves a printing mishap. It seems that this particular copy of the
book I bought had a printing error. The book goes along fine until page 154, then
instead of page 155, pages 123-154 are reprinted and then the book
skips to page 179. Already 154 pages into the book, I decided to just
continue in hopes that whatever is on those missing pages won’t be
crucial to the overall understanding of the book. Did I miss some background information on a character or two, yes, but I was able to piece together most of it with the rest of the stories told.
Has that ever happened to you? Have you received or purchased a final copy of a book that has missing pages? Did you continue reading or stop?
(I purchased this book.)
This sounds really good. As far as running into printing errors like you did – no, I've never seen that. I would definitely contact the publisher though. Chances are they already know about it and would send you a good copy.
That's a good idea…will have to try that!
I have had that happen a few times! It is slightly annoying but I do the same thing and just read on. I had it happen once with the end though and that I had to go figure out LOL
I would have bummed really bummed had the ending been missing. With the middle missing, you can kind of figure out what is missing, but the ending…not so much!
You certainly need a "good" copy of this book! I'll bet there are some tasty cookie recipes in the book.
There definitely were some that looked good!