The Christmas Cookie Club by Ann Pearlman

I’ve been struggling to read Anthill by Edward O. Wilson. It was recommended by Joan Rivers in a magazine I was reading. I think Joan enjoyed it a whole lot more than me. I thought the whole book was about ants, but it isn’t. However, the parts about the ant colony were pretty fascinating. It’s hard to get a good book about ants. Anyway…I noticed The Christmas Cookie Club on display downstairs at Brodie and thought – hmm, it *is* less than 4 months till Christmas. What a welcome reprieve from Anthill. Chick Lit and Christmas baking, it doesn’t get much better than that. It is so my kind of book.  It’s the tale of a twelve Michigan women who meet each December to drink wine, talk and exchange cookies. Members come and go and new ones are referred to as Cookie Virgins. Each person brings 13 dozen cookies, one dozen for each member and one to donate to charity. The story is told by Marnie, she’s the host of this year’s exchange. She tells you about each member. At the start of each chapter there is a recipe for the cookie that that particular woman brought to the exchange.  By recipe number one I was hooked and had a strange desire to go home and bake. Then I remembered it was 31 degrees Celsius (40 with the humidex). That was it for my desire to bake, too bad since it doesn’t happen often. It starts with a great description of winter in the Midwest. I could relate to the effects that the lack of daylight has on a person. I found quote a few passages that I really enjoyed and they’re going into my book of quotes.

Anyway…if you find you can’t take the heat these days, try reading this wintry tale. It promises to cool you off, yet heat up your tastebuds.

Enjoy.

Oh, I didn’t give up on Anthill. It did get pretty exciting, but I can’t say I’d recommend it.

Karen