RE: Compound or recurve?
I've went through a LOT of bows ......... some fit and some didn't I always gravitated to 3 piece TD longbows for their combination of quietness, shootability, good speeds and nice balances between recurve/longbows.
I'd suggest a 62"-64" bow in teh low 50 pound range @ 28". Assuming you're not terribly short armed or long armed, a bow like that would suit you well. $300-400 buys you a very nice used higher end recurve, whereas a higher end compound is a few hundred more.
PM me and I'll give you some web sites to browse and make reccomendations etc if you'd like