Hello everyone!! Welcome to week five of our Paris film journey! Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I wanted fun and whimsy and beauty this spring, and although an actual trip to Paris in the spring would be better, a film journey will have to do. We are having great fun, and hope you will journey along with us!

This week, we watched The Intouchables!

First, a quick summary of the movie from Rotten Tomatoes: “After he becomes a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, an aristocrat hires a young man from the projects to be his caretaker, and an unlikely friendship forms.”

I was hesitant about watching this movie for many reasons. I was afraid of it being “disability inspiration porn”, for one. In case you have never heard this term, it was coined by an Australian disability activist, Stella Young, and is defined as “the objectifying of disabled people as models of inspiration for able-bodied people simply because they are disabled. Inspiration porn reminds able-bodied people that no matter how bad your life may be, you could have it worse, implying the negative connotation that disabled people struggle through life and suffer constantly. ” I am happy to report, this movie was not disability inspiration porn.

I was also hesitant about watching it because my own son is a wheelchair user, which comes with its own set of emotional hang-ups, and some of these were actually touched on in the movie, but in a very sensitive and accurate way. In fact, a large part of the movie revolved around some of them, particularly being viewed with pity. Which is sort of like inspiration porn I guess, but this was just more personal, and less grandiose. Just the everyday type things – like do doctors and nurses greet Wyatt, or just speak through me? Do people talk to him like a baby, or like he isn’t there? The answer to these questions, are yes, sometimes those things happen. And let me tell you, Wyatt gives spectacular side eye. He looks at me like, “Mom, what the heck?”

However, this movie transcended my expectations, and overcame my hesitations with its thoughtfulness and consideration.

Phillipe is rich. He is a rich quadriplegic, and he even acknowledges how that does make his life a bit easier. He goes through caregivers and assistants quickly. He is full care, but has perfect cognitive abilities. His brain, his mind, anything above the neck, was not damaged in his fall. He is a man of culture – music, art, he is surrounded by fine things, a beautiful home, servants. And juxtaposed against him we have Driss. A young man in the peak of his life, healthy, strong, in shape, yet living in a situation that is less than ideal. He is living in a crowded apartment with his family, with zero privacy, and all sorts of his own troubles, including a criminal record.

On the surface, these two men could not be more different. However, they both have a capacity to listen. To learn. To try different things, even if they seem weird or embarrassing. They learn from each other, and while it should feel like Phillipe has the upper hand as an employer, or that Driss should because he has the able body, there is no upper hand. Not really. Both men are in a position where they need the other. Driss needs what Phillipe can give him – a job, stability, a place to live and take a bath without a bathroom full of children and being crunched up in a tub. A purpose. And Phillipe needs Driss, for his very lack of pity. As Phillipe says, Driss hands him the phone when it rings, because he forgets. How refreshing that must have felt to him. Driss does things that probably were unthinkable to others – he helps Phillipe smoke weed, which helps to reduce the pain he still feels, even if it is phantom. It causes him to panic, to need air, to get out. And Driss provides that for him, in a way that is not belittling. He takes him for walks in Paris at night, something Phillipe comments on, that he has not seen Paris by night for ages.

Driss and Phillipe also share their likes and dislikes, like friends. Phillipe shares his love of art with Driss, Driss shares his love of Earth, Wind, and Fire. Yes, Earth, Wind, and Fire. It’s a give and take relationship. One that pushes and challenges equally.

And that is the key here for me. Equally. As equals. Friends. And that is why I loved this movie and it transcended my fears.

It also had some very just plain joyful scenes, including a fun dance scene, which I love in a movie. I love to dance, even though I am terrible. I would have been on that dance floor in a hot second!

I absolutely 100% loved this movie. So far, for me, the movies we have chosen have been so spectacular, and this was no exception. One reason I love pairing up with Lisa for our movie journeys is because we both have such different tastes, and this pushes us too, to watch things that we normally would never probably watch. And honestly, I almost always love what she chooses. And this one knocked it out of the park.

I should also mention, this movie is based on a true story! I am sure Lisa and Cat will share all the deets with you guys, they are so good at that.

Did you watch? What do you think of this movie? Feel free to comment and link up with us! You can find Lisa’s post here!

And just like that, we have one movie left! We were supposed to have a Zoom group watch, but due to life situations for both of us right now, we had to cancel that this time around. I apologize for the late notice. However, if you watch Charade starring Audrey Hepburn, please feel free to post on May 8th with us! Or after, or whenever. We are flexible!!

Hello everyone!

Just a quick update:

The scheduled zoom group watch for Charade is canceled due to different circumstances. However, we still will be posting our thoughts on the 8th!

Thanks for understanding!

Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by That Artsy Reader Girl

This week’s prompt: Books with _____ in the title.

I chose the word “night” for this challenge! And, I sort of played it loose – I included a title even if a word had night in it.

Endless Night by Agatha Christie was one of the first I read when I started reading her books. I still haven’t read them all, there are so many and I tend to hop skip around genres and authors when reading. This book just kept surprising me!

The next two are books I recently added to my TBR, despite their own vintage ages. Gaudy Night by Dorothy Sayers and Tender is the Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I can’t believe I haven’t read Tender is the Night honestly, I went through a whole phase where I was reading his work. I saw both of these on the Goodreads 100 years of beloved books list.

Karen White always writes a good book, in my opinion. The Night the Lights Went Out is one of my favorites.

Half Spent Was the Night by Ami McKay is the second in the Witches of New York series and is set during Yule. I read it in the weird limbo time between Christmas and New Year and it was the perfect read.

Middle of the Night by Riley Sager is still sitting on my TBR. I am not sure when I will read it, as it is about a ten year old boy going missing, and I have a ten year old boy. Not sure I can emotionally handle that!

Nevernight by Jay Kristoff was such a good read!! I read it after my husband told me I needed to read it, and was so drawn into this world. However, the end was not to my liking and so I never read on! **So I have learned that Jay Kristoff is a problematic author, something I was not aware of prior to posting. He has shown racism toward Black people, Jewish people, Asian people, and people with disabilities, and I wanted to add that up here. **

You’re Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kaylynn Bayron (whom I love) is a YA horror and if you like that sort of thing, I definitely recommend it for “summerween” for some summer camp horror.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone is another series that my husband and I read together. I ;oved this little novellla, Night of Cake and Puppets. This story of Mik and Zuzana was so adorable and I just loved everything about it! I will say I was all in on this series for a while, and even made goulash and lavender honey bread because of it. I reviewed it over on my old blog here.

Lucy Foley’s The Midnight Feast was one of my favorite reads last year! I just loved the whole concept and idea of it, and the surprises involved!

And I feel like I flew through this post this time!

I am excited to see what everyone else picked as their word!

Hello everyone!! I am writing this on Thursday but am publishing it on Friday morning. We have an early morning visit to the doctor for his pre-op appointment so we will be gone in the morning. Then we are treating ourselves to a little shopping trip at the French-Japanese bakery near the hospital. I think we will all need a little pick me up after that appointment.

Wyatt and I had spring break this week. It was unintended but, I think it was needed. We have had a great week, and it all started really on Easter weekend, on Saturday when my cousin hosted a small get together for Wyatt, Mermaid Girl, Hurricane, and Brian’s (my cousin) girls, Chloe and Hannah. He had 32 eggs boiled and ready to go, with little set ups for dyeing. He had pizza ordered. He had cookies for the kids to eat. His mom, my Aunt Barb, was a wonderful hostess and she would be so proud of Brian for his get togethers that he puts together. We all want our kids to grow up together, like we did. I dyed Easter eggs when I was this age in this very same room, with Brian, so it was very nostalgic.

On Sunday, we did the Easter things! We had Mediterranean food at my MIL’s house, which was delicious, then later we went to my brother’s for Easter dinner. He had made a ham and we all brought the sides. I made a sugar snap pea and radish salad, Billy made sourdough, and I included a picture of Chrissy’s hot cross buns because they were fantastic. I shoved one in my purse to take home to have with coffee on Monday morning (and it was the best idea ever). I want to add, I do have two other nieces that I mention sometimes – I don’t show them due to their parents request, which is fine. I just always feel really bad leaving them out! They are very sweet girls as well. I love all of my little nieces! They are Billy’s brother’s girls.

On Tuesday, Wyatt and I went to the zoo with friends we made through this blog (yes!) and through Cub Scouts. We had such a good time. I loved Wyatt being able to do an activity with a new friend, although they didn’t actually interact much. They will though, in their own ways, eventually! It’s what I wanted for him, when I set out to find community for Wyatt last year, and it makes my heart so full.

We had the best weather too. It was sunny and 60 degrees, and the animals seemed to enjoy it as well, as they were all out and about. Even the wolves were out, sleeping in the sun. Shawnna and I talked about the poor polar bear. I am sure they do a good job with them, but, we couldn’t help but feel bad for it. It is not even close to being the amount of room they roam in the wild – which also led me to thinking about their loss of habitat due to global warming. I mean it was Earth Day after all. I cry every time I see things about polar bears, even though I would never ever want to meet one on a an ice flow.

Anyway, we had so much fun. I can’t wait for our next outing!! Shawnna and Z. are homeschoolers too, which is awesome – and both of our families like to get up and go early, not something that is easily found!

Wednesday, Wednesday, what did we do? Oh. It was not the most fun of days. I had a doctor’s appointment, just a regular check up for meds and stuff, and my doctor was very pleased with me! I have white coat hypertension (and regular hypertension!) and I had a normal blood pressure while I was there. It was amazing. That never happens. My previous doctor would yell at me though when I had a high reading and my current doctor is actually a caring and empathetic person who does not, which I think makes a difference. I can’t believe how much happier and healthier I am after switching to her. A good doctor makes all the difference. Then Wyatt had therapy that afternoon, as is his normal, and then we followed that up with a trip to the pet store. We had Wyatt’s favorite pet in the whole house, Moon, his red betta (for those of you know who know our fish journey, this is Moon #3) in my office over the winter and Wyatt was ready to move him back to the den. This was an involved process, that required us to shift a few other tanks around as well, so I had to pick up a few supplies. We also lingered, looking at the animals they had in there too, although I didn’t bring any new creatures home. This little ferret was very entertaining!

Thursday, Wyatt went to work with Billy in the morning for Take Your Child to Work Day, and I found myself wandering my house trying to figure out what to do. I didn’t want to do any work, because I had free time so I should be using it for me, I guess, but it all just felt weird. I ended up reading outside and it was really nice. Then I picked Wyatt up from “work” and we went shopping for some summer clothes and then for ice cream. It was a pretty awesome day.

I asked Wyatt what he was typing on the computer, and he told me he was looking up books. I can get behind that. He also told me his dad talks a lot at work. That is also believable. He loved going to work with his dad. He was so excited to go, and he was afraid that Billy was going to leave without him for a minute and panicked. Then he talked about going to work all day after I picked him up. I am so happy that they had that experience together. Wyatt was also excited that they made him a name badge.

And that my friends, is that. I hope that you are all feeling safe and loved and that today you do something that makes you smile.

Hello everyone!! Welcome to week four of our Paris film journey! Lisa from Boondock Ramblings and I wanted fun and whimsy and beauty this spring, and although an actual trip to Paris in the spring would be better, a film journey will have to do. We are having great fun, and hope you will journey along with us!

This week, we watched Hugo!

This one was my pick, and I picked it for Billy. This is one of his favorite movies, and I have to admit, I really like it too, but not as much as he does. He loves all the little tinkering, the clockworks, the workings of machinery, as well as how masterfully this movie is shot and acted.

The summary from Rotten Tomatoes: “Orphaned and alone except for an uncle, Hugo Cabret (Asa Butterfield) lives in the walls of a train station in 1930s Paris. Hugo’s job is to oil and maintain the station’s clocks, but to him, his more important task is to protect a broken automaton and notebook left to him by his late father (Jude Law). Accompanied by the goddaughter (Chloë Grace Moretz) of an embittered toy merchant (Ben Kingsley), Hugo embarks on a quest to solve the mystery of the automaton and find a place he can call home.”

From his home in the walls of the train station, Hugo can see life happening all around him. The woman with the little cute dachshund, who is fiercely protective of her mistress, and won’t let a certain interested gentleman speak with her, the toy seller with his wind up toys, the sweet natured florist, the people rushing rushing rushing for their trains, and the slightly villainous presence of the Station Inspector (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his Doberman, Maximillian. Hugo winds the clocks to keep the Station Inspector at bay, pretending he is his Uncle Claude, who took him in after his father died. Uncle Claude used to keep the clocks running but he disappeared one day to not return. Hugo does not want the Station Inspector to find him, because he will send him to the orphanage, and Hugo does not want to leave – he has his automaton to work on and protect.

The automaton was the last thing his dad had brought home from his job at the museum. The two were looking forward to bringing it back to life before his dad suddenly dies in a fire at the museum, and Hugo was whisked away to the walls of the train station. Hugo makes it his mission to continue the dream that he and his dad had.

Then one day, he meets Isabelle, played by Chloë Grace Moretz. They strike up a friendship, showing each other the wonders of their worlds. Isabelle introduces Hugo to the most delightful looking bookstore, and its kindhearted bookseller, played by Christopher Lee, and Hugo introduces her to movies, and eventually, to his home in the walls and his automaton.

Let’s stop and take a peek at this bookshop, because it is a place I would find magical as well.

Isabelle and Hugo’s stories begin to overlap and become intertwined, as they discover little things that just raise more questions, about the automaton and Hugo’s dad and Isabelle’s godfather, who is the train station toy merchant, Georges Méliès – who also has secrets.

Georges Méliès was a real person, and is at the heart of this movie. He was a filmmaker, and his story is rather interesting. Cat over at Cat’s Wire actually has a blog post about him and his history, if you want to pop over and read it! It will give a bit of background to this movie, and may fill in some blanks, because as I said, a large part of Hugo has to do with Méliès.

I thought this movie was beautifully shot, the cinematography was gorgeous, the story was heartfelt and sincere, and I loved how everything was interwoven and eventually, how it ended.

I thought the side characters and little mini-plots were well done as well. The Station Inspector has his own story, and where you want to dislike him, there is something about him that stops you. A vulnerability in his villain. Bit by bit we learn his story as well, and it brings his actions into perspective. I thought that Sacha Baron Cohen played this character so well, and while his actions seemed cruel, and some were, I don’t think that he necessarily is. I know that sounds super confusing. He and Hugo are very similar, in believing that everyone and everything has a place, an order. Hugo believes that like machines, there are no spare parts, therefore everyone must belong somewhere; and so does the Station Inspector. How this manifests in their actions though, differs and we watch the Station Inspector going from trapped and locked up, to becoming more.

Hugo says in this movie “Maybe that’s why a broken machine always makes me a little sad, because it isn’t able to do what it was meant to do… Maybe it’s the same with people. If you lose your purpose… it’s like you’re broken.”

Hugo is a fixer, a tinkerer. And in this movie, he demonstrates that he can fix more than just automatons and in doing so, finds his place and where he belongs.

This movie is magical. Ben Kingsley’s performance is amazing, as always, and in his end speech, in which he is addressing people involved in film, I feel like he means every single word.

If you haven’t seen this movie, give it a whirl. I think you might like it.

Did you watch? What do you think of this movie? Feel free to comment and link up with us!

Next up is The Intouchables!

Hello everyone! It’s time for another mini book review post!

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst: Oh my goodness and all that is wholesome, I loved every single bit of this book. The author states in her author note that she wanted to write a book that felt like drinking hot chocolate – all cozy. And I would say she definitely succeeded. This book just made me smile. It made me happy. It filled me with all the feels. If I could crawl into a book and live there, I would drag Billy, Wyatt, and I into this one. It had jam and magic and jam and cinnamon rolls and talking plants and merhorses and sigh.. just everything.

This book is perfect for you if you like:

🍓 Cozy fantasy
🍓 Cottagecore
🍓 Slow burn romance
🍓 Found family

Wormwood Abbey by Christina Baehr: “I looked up and saw the rose window with stars in it. They were not glow worms, but real stars, with familiar constellations. I breathed again. I was not in an underground cave. I was in the ruin of the Abbey Church, the monster had fled, and my cousin needed my help. “

Oh my goodness this book spoke to my Gothic book, science, reptile loving self. When Edith and her family receive a letter from her father’s family that he hadn’t spoken to in years, they return to his childhood home, a crumbling Gothic Abbey. What should be a very practical and straightforward type of visit becomes something much different – at least for Edith. This book is full of secrets and mystery, friendship, and surprises. I absolutely adored it.

One way you know I loved it – the author sent me a free ebook with no obligation to read or review, and when I started it, I knew this was a book I had to read a physical copy of. (I much prefer a physical book) So I checked it out from the library. And now that I am finished with that copy, I know I need to purchase my own copy – and the rest of the series as they are available. Yep. I loved it.

“Tea doesn’t wake me up like coffee does. It doesn’t hug me and tell me everything is going to be okay if I just drink it..” I thoroughly enjoyed this third installment of the Gladwynn Grant cozy mystery series by @lisarhoweler . A journalist with a nose for news and a penchant for vintage fashion, Gladwynn is never far from the drama, whether she likes it or not. This book had mystery, style, two possible love interests, and all the family drama you could ask for. It was a fun book that pulled me in, compelling me to read until I found out whodunit. I am looking forward to seeing what is next in store for Ms. Grant!

This book is for you if you like:

☕ Charming settings
☕ Amateur sleuths
☕ Cuddly pets
☕ Good guys win

And that is it from me today! I hope that whatever you do today, you do something that makes you smile!