I like Farkle. It's very simple but can be a lot of fun. Mostly luck, which keeps it light, but there's also some skill, which keeps it interesting. Can be addictive if you have a positive attitude. Whiners won't like it, but I wouldn't play dice with whiners anyway.
Regarding Monopoly- yeah, it's not so great by modern standards, but remember how old it is and how revolutionary it was. Judge it like you would judge a Model T, not like you would judge a Bugatti Veyron.
In Governor's School, I chose the social sciences focus. In one of the classes, we played Risk, but with a twist...each color had a team of three people, and you could negotiate with other teams to form alliances and share pieces. A bit like Diplomacy, if I understand that game correctly.
Don't be afraid to twist games a little to make them more interesting. Pictionary while holding three colored pencils, maybe...foreign language Scrabble...make up a story where each person says one word...have karaoke breaks...maybe the loser has to sing "Barbie Girl"...get creative. Remember that all games were created by someone who decided the current selection of games could be improved.