Marion Zimmer Bradley's potboilers based on a society where telepathic ability is the main power and the structure of society is based around the people who have these abilities. There are quite a few in the series but you can read them in any order. I found them very well written, considering their light fiction nature, and often found them unputdownable.

Clare Francis writes mysteries with lots of interesting characters and plots. One of my absolute favourite authors for entertainment.

Allan Pease Why Men Don't Listen & Women Can't Read Maps - the man who wrote Body Language all those years ago has turned his observational talents to the differences between men and women and how they communicate. Very funny and insightful and a very easy read, but revelatory as well.

Mary Norton's The Borrowers series (kid's books - similar to McGrath's suggestion about "What We Did to Father, in that it is a different way of looking at ordinary life). Catweazle, by Richard Carpenter would be another example of that too.

Engine Summer, by John Crowley, which is a lyrical, gentle post apocalyptic view of the world, with interesting ideas about the mythical nature of the "recollections" about how life was before everything changed. I've read this a couple of times and it is a very gentle but thought provoking novel, rather slow in pace, so not what you would read if you want something exciting, but it often recurs to me in daily life because of its insights.

Jean Merrill: The Pushcart War - kid's book, very funny, about when the people who think they have no power in life band together to take action.

Helen