High School Rules and Fools: An Education

It's no surprise that I was drawn to Elyssa Friedland's latest novel, The Most Likely Club, a where-are-they-now look at four friends who graduated high school in 1997.  After all, I was in the class of 2000.  And never quite got over not being voted best dressed (or best anything) senior year.  I even wrote an article for the school newspaper about the ridiculousness of senior superlatives, saying what next, props for the student who can stuff the most hoagies in his mouth? (High school me was a bit of a wiseass.)  

Anyway, although The Most Likely Club's Melissa, Priya, Tara, and Suki did receive such recognition (Most Likely to Win the White House, Cure Cancer, Open a Michelin-Starred Restaurant, and Join the Forbs 400, respectively), at forty-three, they're disappointed that none of it has come to fruition.  (Well, one has, but with a hefty price tag.)  Their twenty-fifth reunion, chaired by not-United-States-but-PTA-president Melissa, brings them back into each other's lives.  As they alternately reminisce and lament, they learn things about each other -- and themselves -- that they never knew.  And somewhere between the tears and tequila, they realize what's truly important.  

The Most Likely Club has all the feels.  Nerds in shining armor, girl power (yes, you can have one with the other!), suspense, humor, and a generous helping of '90s pop culture references (Friends!  Fiona Apple!  Chokers!).  It even has a well-placed Easter egg about Friedland's previous book, Last Summer at the Golden Hotel.  But best of all, it shines a light on how high school dreams and pressures sometimes set unrealistic expectations.  I can't imagine any woman not connecting with it on some level.  

Light-hearted and fun yet layered and real, The Most Likely Club would make a great movie (are you listening, Hollywood?).  

But for now it'll have to settle for being da bomb.  Or, you know, most likely to be read in one sitting.  

Moving Mountains: Gold Star Stay the Catskills Way

The first Elyssa Friedland book I ever read was The Floating Feldmans, which was a funny family drama set on a cruise ship.  Last Summer at the Golden Hotel is a lot like it, except the cruise ship is a hotel, and the main characters own it.  The Goldmans and the Weingolds have been the proud proprietors of the Golden Hotel for decades.  Nestled in the once-trendy Catskills, or as the locals call them, the Jewish Alps, the Golden Hotel has feted everyone from Joan Rivers to Jerry Seinfeld in its famed theater.  Families have come for generations to bond over brisket and shuffleboard, their happiest moments frozen in time in the hotel's Memory Lane photo gallery.  But time has not been kind to the Golden, and now it's falling apart.  These days, people want organic meals and Wi-Fi, and they're going elsewhere to get it.  Which forces three generations of Goldmans and Weingolds to ask themselves the dreaded question: should they stick it out or sell?  While trying to find the answer, they learn new things about each other -- and themselves.  

Last Summer at the Golden Hotel is fun and nostalgic, harkening back to the days of Dirty Dancing and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, both of which it references.  While reading it, I used the sunflower bookmark I bought at Beyond Van Gogh.  It matched the cover so perfectly that I couldn't stop looking at it. 

As they say, it's the little things.