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Escape to Asia with two terrific movies

As you can probably figure out by now, I’m going a little stir crazy. And I’ve been using the movies to satiate some of my wanderlust, with some moderate success. I shared with you two movie series in this blog so far- The Trip movies and the Before movies. Both are set in Europe- so today I want to share a couple of ways to escape to Asia with movies, The Lover and Lost in Translation.

What I love about Monocle magazine

My first experiences with Monocle magazine were on trips to Europe, where in some of the nicer hotels, the latest version of Monocle would be sitting on the coffee table of our room. And invariably, Dear Husband or I would slip the magazine into our carry-ons to enjoy at a leisurely pace; these magazines are dense with content and always have recommendations and tips that we’ve wanted to file away.

When we all went into quarantine earlier this year, I was looking for distractions. I came across the wide offerings of Monocle– aside from the magazine (published 10 times a year), they have numerous podcasts and email newsletters, books and even shops with a highly curated selection of products. I’ll share my thoughts on what I love about Monocle magazine and all its spin-offs below.

Escape to Europe with The Before movie trilogy

You all may be picking up on a theme in some of my recent posts- I really, really miss traveling! So I’ve been trying to live vicariously through movies, with an emphasis on series/sets of movies set in foreign locales. The Before movie trilogy is a perfect getaway, gorgeous scenery, great dialogue and a romance. I won’t deny it, I cry at the end of the 2nd film every time!

The trilogy starts with Before Sunrise. I spent some time in Europe and Asia in college (and of course there was a romance or two!), and this movie captures perfectly that thrill of being young, in a new place, and enthralled with a companion.

Perfect end of summer binge: The Trip movies

It’s been a weird summer. We usually do a fair amount of our family travel during the summer, due to the school calendar and my husband’s work schedule. But this year, for obvious reasons, has been pretty slow from a travel perspective, other than trips to Cabo and Santa Barbara. Rewatching The Trip movies this summer has been a wonderful escape into the best of travel.

Amuse bouche*: Casino Royale

Heads up that the absolute best James Bond movie is coming back to Netflix on August 31. And that movie is indisputably 2006’s Casino Royale:

Quantum of Solace, the film that follows Casino Royale (by about 5 minutes!), will also be available. Critics didn’t love it when it was released, but they seem to be coming around. It does feature this memorable scene, which was filmed (partially) at Lake Garda, near where we spent a week last summer.

Back to school books for adults

August/September is a great time for a stack of back to school books for adults, especially this year.

It’s been a weird summer for reading. Normally, I spend a decent amount of time on holiday out of town, and I do a lot of my reading on the road. Some of my favorite memories are books I read on trips- reading The Secret History by Donna Tartt while visiting Lake Como was a pretty amazing experience.

This summer has been different, as we all know! Although I have traveled a bit, it’s been hard to tear myself away from podcasts, Netflix, and addictively following the news. I know, it’s bad.

But school starts next week (yikes! I have a junior in high school- how did this happen??) and this is a chance to start fresh with a big stack of new books (or used- even better!) and get back to the healthy habit of reading.