The Christmas Cookie Club

Ann Pearlman, , read by Gabra Zackman. . Audioworks, $29.99 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-7435-9828-6

Complete with an enhanced CD featuring real cookie recipes, Pearlman's effort tries hard not to be that lump of coal that it really is. A group of women dubbing themselves “The Christmas Cookie Club” gather together each holiday season to share new recipes, drink countless bottles of wine, and trade gossip. Zackman delivers a competent but overly sappy reading that does little to ameliorate the cliché-ridden material. An Atria hardcover. (Oct.)

Featured Audio Reviews

David Lynch, Kristine McKenna

Filmmaker Lynch and coauthor McKenna both contribute their voices to this wonderfully entertaining audiobook about Lynch’s life and his creative influences. The chapters Continue reading »

Anthony Horowitz

Voice actor Kinnear sounds playfully peevish and impatient when portraying the narrator of Horowitz’s hugely entertaining whodunit, adding to the novel’s sense of fun. Daniel Continue reading »

David Crystal

With a sharp English accent and expert pacing, Perkins largely exemplifies the lessons in linguist Crystal’s lively treatise on the subject of eloquence. Originally published in Continue reading »

Rick Bragg

Cookbooks don’t translate easily to the audiobook format, but Bragg, reading in a friendly Southern drawl, manages to effortlessly transform this collection of his mother’s Continue reading »