Book and a Beverage [167] – Charleen from It’s a Portable Magic

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 Charleen from It’s a Portable Magic!

Name & Blog Name: Charleen @ It’s a Portable Magic
Tell us a little about your blog! A little over a year ago, I started It’s a Portable Magic as a place where I can share anything I’m into. After my son was born, book blogging (and especially trying to hold onto the niche I’d carved out for myself at Cheap Thrills) was just too stressful. I still probably blog more about books than anything else, but freeing myself of the label has done wonders for my sanity.
What’s been your favorite post you’ve written so far? Looking over my past posts, I’m seeing a whole lot of of-the-moment rambling that doesn’t necessarily hold up months later. But I had a ton of fun putting together this list ranking the movies of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. (Yes, it’s out of date. No, I don’t know where I’d put Doctor Strange.)
Got anything special coming up we should know about? I don’t do much scheduling these days, but I know I’ll be participating in Bout of Books in a couple weeks. It starts January 2nd.

Whatcha reading? Avatar: The Last Airbender: Smoke and Shadow
Where did it come from? (Library, purchased, publisher, etc) The library.
Any special reason you chose to feature this book? I looove Avatar: The Last Airbender. It’s a Nickelodeon cartoon that came out long after I stopped watching Nickelodeon, but I’m so glad I discovered it as an adult because it’s incredible. (Where were the shows like this when I was a kid?) Smoke and Shadow is their fourth three-part comic, all of which are set after the show left off, and it may be my favorite one yet. It deals with themes of fear and power and security and freedom, all of which feel especially relevant right now.
What’s important that we should know about this book? Would you recommend it? If you haven’t read the preceding comics or watched the show, this isn’t the place to start. But this world and these characters really are amazing. So I recommend watching the show… and then reading The Promise, The Search, and The Rift… and then, yes, I absolutely recommend Smoke and Shadow.

Whatcha drinking? Menage a Trois Silk. Because what goes better with a kid-friendly comic than a suggestively named adult beverage?
What’s your favorite thing to drink while reading? A book does not always require a beverage, but if I am drinking something, it’s probably coffee in the morning, water in the afternoon, or wine in the evening.
Favorite beverage of all time. Go! I will never say no to a Mountain Dew Code Red. Only Code Red, though; all other flavors are terrible.

What are your top three books you would recommend to other people? Dante’s Equation, by Jane Jensen, for a fast-paced thriller that’s not like every other fast-paced thriller out there. The Bells, by Richard Harvell, for historical fiction about love and music in the 18th century. And The Unbeatable Squirrel Girl, by Ryan North and Erica Henderson, for anyone wanting to dip a toe into the Marvel Universe (or comics in general).
And since I can’t imagine anyone could read Brittany’s blog and not already have this on their radar, but it was one of the first books that came to mind for this question, I’ll include Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn as an honorable mention.
What’s your proudest blogging/reading/writing moment? I’d been writing at Cheap Thrills (my original book blog) for just under a year when my local library contacted me to be a judge in their Tournament of Books. That was pretty cool.
Anything else you’d like to share? I’ve only been reading comics for a couple years, and I’d say I spent at least half of that time just getting used to the format (and I’m still pretty terrible about focusing on the text and barely looking at the pictures). So if you’re like me and see everyone reading comics and wish you could get into them, give it time and keep trying stories that you’re interested in. And if they’re totally not your thing at all and you couldn’t care less… well, thanks for indulging me anyway.