The Christmas Cookie Club

Ann Pearlman found a structure that really works — one December evening as a window into a full year of women's lives — and the embedded cookie recipes give the book a warmth and interactivity that lifts it above standard book-club fiction. Her background as a family psychotherapist means the emotional dynamics ring true even when the storylines are familiar. The mature themes (affairs, infant loss) mean it is for adults who can hold complicated feelings alongside their holiday reading.