Must Love Dogs, by Claire Cook (2002)
Sarah is a divorced preschool teacher. At the urging (all right: forcing) of her bossy sister, she places a personal ad. Her first blind date is an enormous surprise, and of course I'm not going to ruin it.
Before long, Sarah is fighting them off with a stick while her nosy family interferes and walks into her house without knocking. Sarah's father juggles a busy love life himself, and his girlfriends don't think anything of getting Sarah and her siblings involved in the turmoil.
It's a happy, funny, cheerful sort of book.
Talking to Addison, by Jenny Colgan (2001)
After a string of miserable roommate experiences, Holly convinces her friend Josh to let her rent a tiny room in the house he shares with Kate, Josh's friend but Holly's antagonist, and Addison, a reclusive antisocial computer nut. When a first glimpse of Addison reveals movie-star good looks, Holly is smitten and spends her days wondering how to get Addison to talk to her, pay attention to her, sleep with her, etc. Meanwhile she dodges Kate's barbs and counsels a sexually-undecided Josh. Funny book, with the bonus of being English-accented.
The Lake of Dead Languages, by Carol Goodman (2002)
As a former Latin scholar, I was pleased to find a book starring a Latin teacher and her Latin students. Don't worry, though, if you wussed out by taking Spanish or French: you won't be expected to do any translation.
When Jane Hudson attended the Heart Lake boarding school twenty years ago, both of her roommates commited suicide. A popular student myth at Heart Lake is that the lake "calls to" girls in groups of three, so Jane always felt she'd gotten away with something. As an adult, Jane returns to the school to teach Latin. Once there, her past begins to come back to her in menacing ways, including the appearance of pages from a journal Jane lost the same year her roommates died. As the mysteries increase, so does the body count. Jane must figure out who is trying to recreate the events of her own senior year--and as she does, we learn more of the true story of that year.
The mysteries were not difficult to figure out, but perhaps that was intentional. And although I guessed many an explanation, the tension remained as I waited for Jane to guess too. I like scary books as long as they're not TOO scary; I thought this book struck the perfect balance, and the ending was satisfying.
The Chili Queen, by Sandra Dallas (2002)
The Chili Queen is not a fine dining establishment. Oh dear me no, it's a whorehouse. Wide-eyed Emma comes to stay there, thinking it's a boarding house, after the man she came to marry takes one look at her and begs off the deal. Addie the proprietress wonders if Emma might like to, er, work. Addie feels less friendly about Emma once Emma meets Addie's outlaw boyfriend Ned. And off we go on a story filled with con artists and big plans.
I wouldn't usually describe myself as a person fond of this sort of book, but I enjoyed it throughout and would recommend it to you even if you don't like cowboys and trains.
April Rising, by Corene Lemaitre (1999)
This bizarre book was a puzzle to me from beginning to end. Is it funny, or just weird? Is this plot for real? Are these characters for real? The Kaplan family is made up of the strangest people I think I've ever encountered. Highly intelligent and cultured, they are also highly peculiar. The father of the clan is apparently going mad. The mother has a collection of excrement paperweights, and she knits sweaters with extra arms. The daughter takes off to Europe for two years without telling anyone. The older son abandons his Ph.D. to become a garbage man. The younger son is some sort of genius who never comes out of the basement.
Into their midst comes April: white-bread-eating, pink-sweater-wearing, plastic-jewelry-making, Jesus-statue-collecting, rainbow-and-puppy-loving April. Uneducated and from a waitress/mechanic family, April is as anti-Kaplan as can be. Yet gradually each family member is changed by her, and I think we'd all agree the changes are for the better. I found the book bizarre, as I've mentioned, but also compelling and even touching.