blind dates

After an unexpected breakup, seventeen-year-old Sophie lets members of her large, eccentric extended family set her up on ten blind dates during Christmas vacation.

"Foul-mouthed, quirky, sharp-as-a-whip Hazel never thought she would win the heart of her gorgeous college TA, Josh. And, in fact, she didn't. But what a difference ten years can make. Well...ten years, and a lot of legwork"--Provided by publisher.

It is September 12th, 2001; the setting is the Minneapolis apartment of Waverly, a young advertising executive. Soon to venture on a blind date amidst the television news coverage of the September 11th attacks, Waverly becomes preoccupied when she discovers that her twin sister, Wendy, a student in New York, has not been heard from. Waverly reassures herself that Wendy had no reason to be at the World Trade Center. As the evening unfolds, Waverly and her blind date, Andrew, an airport bookstore manager, realize that they are connected by a succession of bizarre coincidences. As Waverly awaits word on Wendy, the date is complicated by visits from her crazed-musician neighbor, Ron, and his girlfriend, Nancy, and a startling visit from Waverly's great aunt, Joyce Carol Oates?played by a sock puppet.

Curt Tomlinson, a star defenseman for the Lawrence High hockey team, is surprised to learn his blind date, Judy Baird, is actually blind, but he is won over by her enthusiasm for the game, never suspecting she is keeping some disturbing secrets.