Review: There's a (slight) chance I might be going to hell

There's a (slight) chance I might be going to hell by Laurie Notaro

Summary (from Publishers Weekly): When Maye Roberts's husband, Charlie, gets a tenure-track job at prestigious Spaulding University, childless, 30-something Maye leaves her tight-knit group of friends and job as a Phoenix reporter to move to the school's eponymous Washington State burg. While Charlie fits in easily, Maye, after a faculty dinner run-in with Dean Spaulding's wife, Rowena, feels lonely and bored. When she learns about the Sewer Pipe Queen pageant, a local tradition that guarantees the winner a town full of friends, she enters with her singing dog, inflaming Rowena further. As tensions thicken, Maye's rather notorious pageant sponsor, Ruby, may hold the key to Rowena's continuing rage and to the decades-old incident that sparked it.

My thoughts: Like Swim to Me, this is just a great, quick read - lots of fun. There are some truly hilarious parts, particularly Maye's disastrous attempts at making friends. My favourite is her joining a "gothic book club" that isn't interested in the Brontes and their ilk at all and turn out to be complete loons. I actually really felt for Maye - one of my fears is having to move away from my lifelong home some day and being incredibly lonely because I can't make new friends, and that's exactly what she experiences when she moves to Spaulding. Speaking of which, the town,

with its blend of old timers and new agers, is a much character as much as any of its quirky residents (of whom there are quite a few).