The Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman

Chocolate bonbons with an almond glaze. Peanut butter cookies double dipped in chocolate. Coffee and raisin hermit biscuits. Crisp vanilla fingers with toasted almonds. Thin crunchy crisps flavoured with molasses and ginger.

The Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman
Buy The Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com
Category: Women's Fiction
Reviewer: Zoe Morris
Summary: A wonderful book full of festive flavour, this is the tale of twelve women who meet once a year to spill the secrets of their lives to one and other.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 288	Date: January 2010
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
ISBN: 978-1847376848
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If you're even the slightest bit peckish after that, I guarantee you'll be starving by the time you finish this wonderful book full of festive flavour.

Every year at the beginning of December, Marnie opens her home to the Cookie Club, a group of friends, some old, some new, who might not see much of each other during the year but who meet like clockwork on this date. Oh, and they bring cookies with them. We're not just talking a plate of bog standard chocolate chip, either. Some of the women spend the good part of a year planning their next Cookie Club offering. They bring recipes passed down through generations, concoctions the club have clamoured for again and again, ones that help tell a story or explain the struggles each is facing at that time. They package them in frilly gift bags, neat boxes, bright shiny tins, crisp cellophane, adorn them with ribbons and bows and feathers and confetti, the presentation almost as important as the contents, and they pass them out one by one to the rest of the group. By the end of the night, each woman has eleven new packets of cookies to enjoy through the holidays, and their bond has been reinforced for another year.

If the cookies nourish their bodies, then the story telling that comes as part of the night nourishes their souls. The women share their news, their highs and lows, their plans for the future. Spanning two generations, the guests are at various stages in their lives, so we have people struggling to conceive, those dealing with divorce and adultery, others who have been widowed or are eagerly awaiting grandchildren. Cancer survivors mingle with those who have been dealing with redundancy and home foreclosure, while others have overcome abusive pasts to get to where they are today. This is not a book of sob stories, but simply reinforces the message that no matter how rosy their lives may appear on the outside, everyone is dealing with something they'd rather not be.

The book has a lovely structure, with each recipe featured in full at the start of the chapters, making it a guide in how to bake as much as a novel to lose yourself in. Each woman, and each cookie, gets a moment in the spotlight as we learn how Marnie met them all in the first place, how each of them know one and other, and the specific ties that bind – both feuds and friendships. Though there are a lot of characters to keep track of – a dozen women are active members of the club, but other people's stories get woven in too – the book moves seamlessly from one to the next.

The characters are the main focus of the book – it's about the who, not so much the where – but I must mention the setting, Ann Arbour in Michigan. This backdrop really completed the story for me, as the fleeting descriptions of the local main street and the businesses and neighbourhoods that made up the community brought the story to life. It comes across as a good old fashioned place to live the American dream, and fitted in perfectly with the lives of Marnie and her friends.

The book only spans one evening, but it feels like it lasts a lifetime. It is an absorbing, heart-warming read, with a dash of romance, a sprinkling of angst and a spoonful of hope. Just like the holidays in general, it's a time for reflection on the past and resolutions for the future. A simply delicious read.

Thanks go to the publishers for sending us this book.

This book will appeal to fans of Jodi Picoult who produces equally beautifully crafted books about the complexities of the many different types of relationships in the world.

The Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman is in the Bookbag's Christmas Gift Recommendations 2010.

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You can read more book reviews or buy The Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free.
You can read more book reviews or buy The Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman at Amazon.com.

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