Carcassonne
This is a lovely little game that involves choosing a tile, and building roads and cities. It's 30-45 minutes long. It can be played calmly, sort of in a simultaneous solitaire (as HE, or it can be played cut throat, trying to steal each others' cities and roads (as Samir and I play).
Word Thief
This is personally one of my all-time favorite games! You get seven cards, which are letters. Each card is a suit (regular suits: clubs, hearts, etc). On your turn you spell words with your cards. If your word is spelled with letters of different suits, another player can take your work on their turn. This is a seriously fun game!