Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly linkup of book bloggers hosted by The Broke and The Bookish! This week’s topic: non-book websites that we love! Being a bookworm is a pretty big part of my identity, obviously, I started a book blog and everything. But I like lots of other things too, so I’m excited to share some of my other favorite places on the internet outside of bookworld!
A Model Recommends: Ruth was an actual fashion model, and although it seems like she’s retired from the runway at this point, she has a ton of experience getting makeup slathered on her face and took that experience and turned it into a really enjoyable beauty blog! She just had her first child and has a companion blog, The Uphill, about her experiences with pregnancy and motherhood that’s just as wonderful as AMR.
Blue Collar Red Lipstick: I like fashion and style and reading about those things, but from, like, real people. Not that the various 5’10” 120 pound girls living in NYC and wearing head to toe designer clothes that seem to be the popular fashion bloggers aren’t people, obviously, but you know what I mean. Adina is a lawyer living in Edmonton and a mother of two who posts her work and weekend outfits and I love seeing what someone of a similar life station to me actually wears in her life. She’s got a great sense of style and has also written some books (under the name Aren Piada) which I haven’t gotten a chance to read yet but I’m looking forward to reading when I get the chance!
Hacker.Ninja.Hooker.Spy: Aussa’s life would be too bonkers to be true except it is true, and while she’s gone through some awful situations, her determination to look at her life with a sense of humor rather than what would be deserved self-pity makes this one of the funniest blogs I read. I don’t think there’s a single post that hasn’t elicited actual out-loud laughter.
Go Fug Yourself: Heather and Jessica actually started out as writers for Television Without Pity (where I once haunted the America’s Next Top Model boards daily), and not only do they run GFY, they are YA authors themselves (all their books are on my TBR). But I started reading GFY back in 2004 when I was a sophomore in college and haven’t stopped since. That’s over ten years, so this is good stuff.
Budget Bytes: I like looking at food blogs and pretty food photographed in pretty ways, but the reality is that I’m not a very adventurous eater. I like mostly pretty basic stuff. Beth posts recipes that are both totally doable for a basic home cook (which is where I’d consider myself to be) and as the name of her blog suggests, affordable to make! Not everything she posts is vegetarian-friendly, but there’s plenty that is and I’ve never made a dud from her.
Pole Dancing Adventures: In my spare time, when I’m not working or reading (or hanging out on the couch drinking beer, let’s be real), it’s as likely as not that you’ll find me at Epic Pole Fitness. I’ve been doing pole for exercise for the past couple years (very off and on, but I’ve been going consistently for the past 6 months now) and I LOVE it. It’s so much fun and a great workout, but there are definitely downsides (falling, brusing), and Leen’s well-drawn and funny comics about pole are something I really enjoy!
Pajiba: I first found them when they were mostly a film review site. Those days are long in the past for them, but as they’ve grown to encompass generally entertainment and cultural news (which is almost their sole focus these days), I’ve kept up with them. Their writers are smart and insightful and funny (not 100% of the time, obviously, because that just doesn’t happen, but most of the time) and it’s one of my favorite sources of information on the internet.
MGoBlog: I’m a VERY proud Michigan alum. Ask anyone who has ever met me. Especially Michigan athletics. And there’s no resource on the internet for Umich sports like Brian at MGoBlog. I’ve been reading since college and although I kind of peaked with the post-Carr coaching search when I was in law school, I still do a glance at MGoBlog daily just to see what’s going on.
Modcloth: Here’s a story about me: I never had much of a sense of style (read: I was not at all good at dressing myself) until my last year of law school. I had an off-and-on relationship that went off again, and instead of getting back together with me like he always had before, my ex started dating one of our classmates. I was angry and heartbroken, and in a fit of pique, I vowed that he could date whoever he wanted, but I would never show up at the law school looking less cute than she did. And she was a Southern girl, so she dressed well. I had to step up my game. Enter Modcloth, where I found the kind of pretty dresses that would become my trademark when I moved back to Michigan and then out to Nevada. I have coworkers that have literally never seen me in pants even though winter definitely happens in northern Nevada because I love my dress collection so much I refuse to wear anything but dresses.
Tumblr: I’ve been on this site since…2008? Geez. I started out being much more active in terms of actually posting myself, but I haven’t done much of that in the past five years or so. At this point, I’m mostly just keeping up with my favorites. There’s so much content on tumblr, which is one of the great things about the site: you can curate your own feed to be exactly what you want to see, and there’s something to see for pretty much any interest. It’s pretty much my only connection to what the cool kids are up to anymore.