JCG, your question touches on the surface of things - let's look a little deeper.
The reason 1-5 reps are better for strength is because you can use a heavier weight, and heavier weight is better for strength. Pretty much anything you can accomplish with 8-12 reps can be accomplished better by two sets of 5 (or a set of 4 and a set of 6) with a heavier weight and a short rest in between.
I have read some things that suggest women may benefit, or at least be better able to tolerate, slightly higher rep ranges than men, but that doesn't change the underlying principle: lift as much as possible, as heavy as possible, while remaining as fresh as possible. If you are after hypertrophy, group more of your volume into a single heavy day with at least one lighter day during the week. If you're after purely neural improvements, train throughout the day with a weight that's heavy enough to yield results yet not so heavy as to prevent training every hour or two.
Variety is good, and doing a higher rep range once in a while is good. Even better is using several different weights in your workout, some of which are heavy enough to restrict you to singles and doubles in training, others with which you can do a few more reps, and yet others with which you can comfortable train up to 6 reps per set.
If you want to know more about programming, I encourage you to attend Plan Strong with Pavel where you will have an opportunity to ask questions.
If you are looking for a program, I suggest you Shop, then Books & Videos on the menu above - there are many excellent ones there.
-S-