CurlyGeek

My October Reading Wrap-Up Happy November, readers! October was fairly uneventful, which is fine with me. I mostly focused on work, volunteering in my library's Fall Book Sale, and going to Washington Spirit games (our women's soccer team - go Spirit!). It was my father's birthday this month, which was sad, and I thought about him during the Jewish holidays. November will be a busy month, as I participate in one of my favorite events, …

My October Reading Wrap-Up #bookreviews #monthlywrapup

Nonfiction November: My Year (So Far) in Reading Nonfiction I always love participating in Nonfiction November, because I get so many good book recommendations from the other bloggers.  The first week's topic is "celebrate your year of nonfiction" and is hosted by Based on a True Story. What books have you read? What were your favorites? Have you had a favorite topic? Is there a topic you want to read about more?

Nonfiction November: My Year (So Far) in Reading Nonfiction #NonfictionNovember #readnonficchal #memoir #bookreviews

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Halloween Horror/Fantasy Novels You May Not Have Read This week's Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is a Halloween freebie. Today I'm writing about some of my favorite horror/paranormal stories that you may not have heard about. I'm always been a big fan of Stephen King, but these days I lean more towards fantasy and horror that are more eerie than violent, and stories that combine unique places, history, and diverse perspectives to create a chilling story.

Favorite Halloween Fantasy/Horror You May Not Have Read #TopTenTuesday
#diversereads #fantasy #horror

Young Adult Fiction: Reads and Rereads Working with high school English classes, I’ve become much more interested in young adult fiction, particularly books that will engage our students. We encourage students to pick their own books during silent reading time, and they have free access to a wide range of digital and paper books. Graphic novels are especially popular, but we're studying poetry right now and I'm finding a lot of great books written in verse, like the work of Jason Reynolds, Kwame Alexander, and Elizabeth Acevedo.

Young Adult Fiction: Reads and Rereads #bookreviews #youngadult

Young Adult Fiction: Reads and Rereads Working with high school English classes, I’ve become much more interested in young adult fiction, particularly books that will engage our students. We encourage students to pick their own books during silent reading time, and they have free access to a wide range of digital and paper books. Graphic novels are especially popular, but we're studying poetry right now and I'm finding a lot of great books written in verse, like the work of Jason Reynolds, Kwame Alexander, and Elizabeth Acevedo.

Young Adult Fiction: Reads and Rereads

Working with high school English classes, I’ve become much more interested in young adult fiction, particularly books that will engage our students. We encourage students to pick their own books during silent reading time, and they have free access to a wide…

ARC Review: The Gilded Heiress and Gabriela and His Grace I received advanced review copies (ARCs) of two historical romance novels this summer, The Gilded Heiress by Joanna Shupe and Gabriela and His Grace by Liana de la Rosa.  Of the two, I enjoyed Gilded Heiress more. The Gilded Heiress is about a young con man who’s made his living on the streets so he can take care of his family. 

ARC Review: The Gilded Heiress and Gabriela and His Grace #bookreviews #NetGalley #historicalromance

An Update on 2025 Reading Challenges We're in the home stretch on reading challenges, so here's an update on where I am. I still have a lot to read in three months, but I would like to close these out. If you're working on any of these challenges, I'd love to hear what you have left or what you're struggling with. Two of these challenges have Goodreads groups if you're looking for ideas.

An Update on My 2025 Reading Challenges #readingchallenges #readjewishly #readnonficchal #the52bookclub

ARC Review: The Librarians by Sherry Thomas I really wanted to like this one. I've enjoyed Sherry Thomas' romances, but this was the exact opposite of steamy. Neither the romances nor the mystery worked for me, though it might for others. Set in Austin, the book revolves around four people working in a library. Jonathan is a former football player who's in love with a friend but he's afraid to do anything about it.

ARC Review: The Librarians by Sherry Thomas

I really wanted to like this one. I've enjoyed Sherry Thomas' romances, but this was the exact opposite of steamy. Neither the romances nor the mystery worked for me, though it might for others. Set in Austin, the book revolves around four people working…

Top Ten Tuesday: Some of My Favorite Series This week's Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is about our favorite series, especially those series that are consistently good throughout. These are all series of at least three books (no duologies) and while I haven't completed all these series, I've read most of them. I'm not great at finishing long series, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy them.

My Favorite Book Series #TopTenTuesday #bookreviews

My September Reading Wrap-Up September was a pretty good month, all things considered. I went on vacation, taking 10 days off to visit California with Mr. CG. We had a fantastic time with family and did a lot of touristy things in LA. We also went wine tasting in Los Olivos, one of my favorite areas of California (the area in the movie…

My September Reading Wrap-Up #monthlywrapup #reading #bookreviews

ARC Review: As A Jew by Sarah Hurwitz #bookreview #NetGalley #Judaism #readnonficchal #readjewishly

Freewriting Friday: Exploring Los Angeles I wasn't able to write much this week, because we came back from a trip to Los Angeles, and then things have been busy. This week I went to a retirement party for two of my former co-workers, and it was wonderful to catch up with good friends. School is great, I'm getting to know my students a little better every day, and some are getting more comfortable with me.

Freewriting Friday: Exploring Los Angeles

Reading by the Ratings: Books on My Shelf I Need to Read The topic of this week's Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is our fall To Be Read (TBR) list. I've gotten away from TBR lists, outside of challenges, because I want some flexibility in how I read. But I keep eyeing the books sitting on my shelves, which are increasing rather than decreasing. I decided to rank the books on my shelves by Goodreads and The StoryGraph ratings, to come up with a list of 20 that I'll prioritize.

Reading by the Ratings: Books on My Shelf I Need to Read #TopTenTuesday #TBRlist #reading

ARC Review: Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley Angeline Boulley has done it again. She's written a story that's hard to put down, but is also steeped in Native American issues and history, with characters that are emotionally complex. And if you're looking for a book that picks up the lives of the main characters in Firekeeper's Daughter, you won't be disappointed. This is a standalone book, but if you haven't read the previous two, I recommend reading them first.

ARC Review: Sisters in the Wind by Angeline Boulley #NetGalley #the52bookclub #bookreviews #YAfiction #indigenous

Top Ten Tuesday: Novels with Occupations in the Title This week's Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is about books with occupations in the title. This was harder to find than I thought -- but I chose not to include nonfiction, which would have made things easier. I also chose not to include criminal "occupations" like thief, bandit, etc. Here are ten highly-recommended books with ocupations in the titles.

Ten Favorite Novels with Occupations in the Title #TopTenTuesday

My August Reading Wrap-Up Happy September, readers! I went back to work in August. It all happened very suddenly. I sent an email to a local principal, and he didn't have an open teaching position but offered to bring me in as an instructional assistant. This would give me experience and a foot in the door when a teaching position opens up. So over a two week period I got fingerprinted, cleared, badged and oriented, bought a used car, and started on the first day of school, August 18.

My August Reading Wrap-up #20booksofsummer2025 #the52bookclub #bookreviews #reading

Freewriting Friday: Going Back to High School As I've had time off, I've been doing a lot of journaling, or freewriting and I've decided to start up a "Friday Freewriting" feature about topics outside of reading. This isn't really free-writing in that I'm of course reviewing and editing before I post it. And I don't think it will be every Friday, but maybe every other. If you're interested in this at all, please like or let me know in a comment.

Freewriting Friday: Going Back to High School #freewriting #teaching

ARC Review: Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders I loved Anders' previous book, All the Birds in the Sky, so I was happy to receive an ARC of her newest book. This was a book with many layers, and one that was much more about relationships than about magic. In fact, this book explores quite a few relationships: between Jamie and both of her mothers, between Jamie and her partner, and even some true historical relationships between queer women in the 18th century.

ARC Review: Lessons in Magic and Disaster by Charlie Jane Anders #netgalley #torbooks #reviews #20booksofsummer2025

Top Ten Tuesday: Ten Epic Reads I Recommend This week's Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is about books with high page counts. I feel like as I've gotten older I gravitate away from really long books, but when I was in college they were my favorite. Maybe I had more concentration when I was younger, but now it just seems like time is limited and there are so many books I want to read.

Ten Epic (Long) Reads I Recommend #TopTenTuesday #classics #reading

Review: The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami This book hit disturbingly close to home, as people in the U.S. are being rounded up in airports, courthouses and on the streets. In this dystopian novel, Lalami describes a near future where people are assigned risk scores that indicate their likelihood of committing a crime. These scores are based on social media interactions, criminal records, family issues, health records, and even dreams.

Review: The Dream Hotel by Laila Lalami #20booksofsummer2025 #WomensPrize #bookreviews #the52bookclub

ARC Review: Well, Actually by Mazey Edding This was my first book by Eddings, and it won't be my last! I enjoyed everything about this snarky but thoughtful romance. It was especially nice to read a story that felt original, to me at least, though it relies on some standard romance tropes (second chance, enemies to lovers). Eva Kitt is struggling to make it in journalism, currently stuck interviewing B (and C and D) list celebrities on a low-budget show called Sausage Talk, where she and her guests eat hot dogs and swap innuendo.

ARC Review: Well, Actually by Mazey Edding #bookreviews #20booksofsummer2025

Top Ten Tuesday: Favorite Books about Immigrants in the United States This week's Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is a "genre freebie" so I decided to write about books featuring families who move to the United States. I realize that isn't a genre - I'm stretching a bit because it feels important. This is a devastating time for anyone in the U.S. who is an immigrant, with ICE raiding and deporting people with little or no evidence, tearing apart families, communities and businesses.

Favorite Books About Immigrants to the United States #TopTenTuesday #memoir #historicalfiction #diversereads

My July Reading Wrap-Up This summer is going fast! The weather has been brutal but the reading's been good. I'm still job-searching and exploring what I want to do with my time and my career. But I'm feeling a little more optimistic even though the job market is horrible and people are being laid off by the thousands. Ugh. Please support your federal workers and contractors!

My July Reading Wrap-Up #bookreviews #reading #20booksofsummer2025

ARC Review: The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce I was disappointed in this book, the latest from Rachel Joyce. The novel is about Vic, a famous artist and big personality, and his four adult children, Netta, Susan, Goose (short for Gustav) and Iris. Vic falls in love with a much younger woman and elopes to the family's island villa in Italy before any of them has even met her, which causes all kinds of turmoil.

ARC Review: The Homemade God by Rachel Joyce #bookreview #reading #NetGalley @20booksofsummer2025

On the Road to Oz: Visiting the Matilda Joslyn Gage House A few weeks ago, Mr. CG and I drove to upstate New York to visit the Roycroft Campus, Seneca Falls for women's history, and Seneca Lake for wine-tasting. It was a busy but relaxing weekend. One of my favorite spots was the Matilda Joslyn Gage House near Syracuse. This was the home of L. Frank Baum's wife and mother-in-law, and it's where Frank and Maud married.

On the Road to Oz: Visiting the Matilda Joslyn Gage House #travel #womenshistory #suffrage #ozbooks

Novels about Difficult Women, Part 3: The Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo Third in my series of reviews about difficult women is Claire Lombardo's second novel, The Same As It Ever Was. I absolutely loved it. In this book, like All Fours, the narrator Julia is struggling with a new and overwhelming identity as a parent. She seems lost, and is a pretty terrible parent, but we gradually learn that she had very traumatic experiences with her father (abandonment) and her mother (neglect and abuse).

Novels about Difficult Women, Part 3: The Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo #bookreviews #familyrelationships #marriage #20booksofsummer2025

Wives in Crisis, Part 2: Colored Television by Danzy Senna Next up in my reviews of novels about "difficult women"-- or middle-aged women struggling with marriage and lying to their husbands -- is Danzy Senna's Colored Television. Jane Gibson, wife to Lenny and the mother of two young children, is a creative writing teacher (nearly a professor) who's trying to complete her second novel. Lenny happily makes abstract paintings that earn no money at all.

Wives/mothers in crisis, Part 2: a review of Colored Television by Danzy Senna #20booksofsummer2025 #bookreviews #the52bookclub

Books about “Difficult Women”: All Fours by Miranda July Either this is a literary trend, or I unintentionally chose a set of books to read this summer that all involve middle-aged women lying to their husbands (All Fours, Same As It Ever Was, and Colored Television). Each of these were fascinating books, though with I often found myself slapping my head and thinking, "just tell the truth!". So I've written a review of each of them. 

Books about Difficult Women: All Fours by Miranda July #20booksofsummer2025 #bookreviews #womensprize

Top Ten Tuesday: Books I Want to Re-read The topic of this week's Top Ten Tuesday (hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl) is books I'd like to re-read. I rarely re-read books, because there's so much I want to read. But it's always nice to re-experience an old favorite and see how it's changed. In 2023, I wrote about this topic and I re-read many of the books on that list.

Recent Rereads and Books I Still Want to Reread #TopTenTuesday #BeattheBacklist

My June Reading Wrap-Up My summer reading is off to a fantastic start! I'll tell you more below, but the books I read in June featured complicated relationships and powerful characters. Many of these books were about loving but at times troubled marriages. In June, Mr. CG and I celebrated my birthday with a trip to upstate New York. In addition to wine tasting around Seneca Lake, we visited the Roycroft arts center and Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House.

My June Reading Wrap-Up #20booksofsummer2025