About

I’m Deb – although in a lot of ways I like CurlyGeek better.  My husband came up with the name and it describes me pretty well.  This blog is all about me being geeky.  I love books, with a passion.  I spent my childhood wishing I were more fun and interesting and social — but now, at about 40, this blog is about just being who I am.

Obviously, I write about books — book reviews, e-readers, favorite children’s books, book stores, authors, literacy and education.

I read mostly literary fiction, historical fiction, historical mysteries, fantasy and science fiction, young adult/children, and lately steampunk and “urban fantasy”. Not much nonfiction, although I buy the occasional cookbook, travel guide, or book about the education system.

I love books that take place in other times and other worlds, or with characters that have powers greater than our own.  I love books with strong, smart heroines who aren’t “girly”.  A lot of the urban fantasy these days is too “romance novel” for me — I want a strong story and great characters.  I lean towards British writers — Nick Hornby, Kate Atkinson, Maggie O’Farrell, and Margot Livesey, to name a few.  Maybe because Britain (especially Scotland) is one of my favorite places.

My favorite place as a child was the library.  Nostalgia for me is going into the children’s section of my library and looking at those old books that are like friends still waiting for you.  Today I collect the antique editions of the Oz books.  I also love the old fairy tale illustrators like John R. Neill (Oz series), Arthur Rackham, and Maxfield Parrish.

After my husband, family, and my two cats (Sammy and Harley), books are what I love most.  This may not make me an interesting person in the eyes of most people — but I hope it makes for an interesting blog if you love books as much as I do.

After reading, some things I like include: travel, genealogy, coffee, wine-tasting, and yoga.  At the moment I’m also hooked on Dragon Age, a computer game.

To give you a good idea of what I read, here are some “favorite five” lists.  I’ll try to update these from time to time.

Favorite Books Released in 2012

• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green
• The Round House by Louise Erdrich
• The Drowned Cities by Paolo Bacigalupi
• The Casual Vacancy by JK Rowling
• Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein

Favorite Books Released in 2011

• The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides
• Pigeon English by Stephen Kelman
• When the Killing’s Done by TC Boyle
• The Lovers’ Dictionary by David Levithan
• Cinderella Ate My Daughter by Peggy Orenstein (nonfiction)

Favorite Books Released in 2010

• Major Pettigrew’s Last Stand by Helen Simonson
• A Visit from the Goon Squad by Jennifer Egan
• The Lacuna by Barbara Kingsolver
• Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde
• The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell
• Juliet, Naked by Nick Hornby

Favorite Classics

• David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
• Emma by Jane Austen
• Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy
• Animal Farm by George Orwell
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee

Favorite Series:

• Ilona Andrews’ Kate Daniels series
• Patricia Briggs’ Mercy Thompson series
• Kate Atkinson’s Jackson Brodie series
• Scott Westerfeld’s Leviathan series
• Jasper Fforde’s Thursday Next series
• Diana Gabaldon’s Outlander series
• Deanna Raybourn’s Julia Grey series

Five Classic Writers I Mean to Read Someday:

• Leo Tolstoy (Anna Karenina, War and Peace)
• Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five)
• Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Cristo)
• Henry James (Portrait of a Lady)
• Elizabeth Gaskell (North and South)

Favorite Non-Fiction

• Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
• The Partly Cloudy Patriot by Sarah Vowell
• The Compassionate Carnivore by Catherine Friend
• Reviving Ophelia by Mary Pipher
• The Johnstown Flood by David McCullough

Favorite Cookbooks (or, Five I Actually Use)

• Hungry Girl 1-2-3 by Lisa Lillien
• Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless
• How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman
• The New Basics Cookbook by Rosso & Lukins
• Everyday Food: Fresh Food Fast by Martha Stewart Living Magazine

Favorite Young Adult Books (or Series):

• Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
• Uglies by Scott Westerfeld
• A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle
• Homecoming by Cynthia Voigt
• The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

Favorite Contemporary British Writers:

• Nick Hornby
• Jasper Fforde
• Kate Atkinson
• Maggie O’Farrell
• David Mitchell

Favorite Books I Read in College:

• Gone to Soldiers by Marge Piercy
• The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath
• To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
• House of the Spirits by Isabel Allende
• Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver