Book and a Beverage [42] – Amanda from Off the Book

Welcome back to BOOK AND A BEVERAGE!

In case you don’t know the deal about Book and a Beverage, it’s a very simple yet fun feature: We read books, we drink beverages, we take pictures of them and then I share your photos and a little about you to the blogging world!

Give a big welcome to Amanda from Off the Book!

Name & Blog Name:  My name is Amanda, and I’m “Blogger in Chief” at Off The Book!
Tell us a little about your blog! I’m a native New Yorker, so Off The Book is brash, with critical but fun reviews, fashion meets fiction segments, and a ton of lists! I also make an effort for it to be gender neutral.
What’s been your favorite post you’ve written so far? (Link us up!)  This is difficult! Well, my most popular post, and the one I found most fun to write was my “Lessons from The Little Prince for the Little Prince,” written in honor of baby Prince George of England’s arrival. I also wrote it while thinking of my (then) baby cousin-to-be.
Got anything special coming up we should know about? I recently started my 2014 Women’s Lit Challenge. I’m challenging myself to only review books by women this year. Feel free to join me!

Whatcha reading? I just got an ARC of “Tease” by Amanda Maciel. Besides that, loooots of fantasy right now. Reading Ursula K. LeGuin’s “The Wizard of Earthsea” for the very first time – it is BEAUTIFUL. I’m also on book three of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series, and I am quickly getting obsessed.
Where did it come from? (Library, purchased, publisher, etc) I purchased “The Wizard of Earthsea” from Politics & Prose in D.C., where I went to college, and “The Dragon Reborn” from The Strand in New York City.
Any special reason you chose to feature this book? Well, I review a lot of fantasy/sci-fi on Off The Book. I use reading as a way to escape the everyday issues in life. While I do also read a lot of contemporary fiction, my guilty pleasures tend to be long, drawn-out series with a hero and a dragon or two!
What’s important that we should know about this book? Would you recommend it? I would absolutely recommend both books. The imagery in both novels are insanely beautiful, you really feel as if you live in both worlds.

Whatcha drinking? Regular English Breakfast Tea, out of my very special squirrel teacup 😉
What’s your favorite thing to drink while reading? I definitely fluctuate. It ranges from a mocha latte, to chai tea, to hot chocolate.
Favorite beverage of all time. Go! Salted caramel mocha latte! Yummm.

What are your top three books you would recommend to other people? 1. Patrick Rothfuss’s “The Name of The Wind” is something I’ve been shoving on other people. Often literally. I just made one of my friends buy a copy of it by threat of tickles. 2. A Tree Grows In Brooklyn by Betty Smith is a childhood favorite of mine. Francie – a quiet, intelligent reader with a heart of gold struggling in NYC – is a hero to any little girl or boy, especially if you grew up in Brooklyn like I did. Fire escape “treehouses” FTW! 3. The His Dark Materials series by Philip Pullman. If you like Harry Potter or Neil Gaiman, this is one of the most bittersweet, charming, and heart-rending book series in existence.
What’s your proudest blogging/reading/writing moment? My proudest moment came at the 6 month point, where I broke my consistent blogging record. Before this blog, I’d tried to start quite a few blogs about fashion (a what I wore kind of thing, which is hilarious because I care very little about fashion), food, and poetry. Then I realized what I talked about – and loved most – were books! So I started this blog and haven’t looked back since.
Anything else you’d like to share? Things I love: hedgehogs, almonds, museum hopping, & drawing/painting. Things I also love: Hearing from fellow bloggers. Please reach out! I’d love to get to know the amazing book bloggers in this community even better.

So awesome to get to know you better, Amanda! Maybe I’ll have to look into His Dark Materials because I love Harry Potter (of course) and I’ve just been getting into Neil Gaiman lately! 🙂
Also loving the cover for the TEASE ARC!

I hope you enjoyed getting to know Amanda! You can find out more about Amanda at her blog, Off the Book, on Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Goodreads, and Instagram!

Are you interested in being featured on BOOK AND A BEVERAGE? Head on over to this feature’s page for the sign-up form!

And don’t forget! You can participate in Book and a Beverage at any time! Got a book? Got a beverage? Just tweet or post your photo on Instagram using the hashtag #bookandabeverage and I’ll retweet or repost your photo!