We’re celebrating Halloween this weekend in the United States, so this post has an eerie vibe with spooky recipes, invasive plants, a dystopian book review, and books that expose the scary state of the work force.

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Mushroom Skull Pesto Pizza

Chocolate Covered Skeleton Pretzels (*video has sound)

This is the time of year when I begin to layer decorations. Instead of starting new with each holiday, I begin with decorations that evoke a feeling of fall. For Halloween, I add a few spooky elements like the little crow in the photo above.

Once it is time for Thanksgiving, I remove the ghosts and crows, but leave the pumpkins. I might add a wreath with leaves and eucalyptus knowing that the eucalyptus is a whisper of winter and the decorations that come with Christmas. I love the transitions that happen between holidays and seasons rather than an abrupt change.

GARDEN

The Dangers of Invasive Species

You may already know about many of the native plants in your area, but do you know about invasive plants? Invasive plants are plants that are introduced into an area and are not considered to be native. Invasive plants tend to take over native habitats by preventing native plants from thriving and can even worsen allergies and asthma for those living in the area. A quick online search for your area should give you an idea of what to look for. To help native plants and wildlife, don’t add invasive plants to your landscape and remove them when you have the opportunity.

In Texas, I’ve found the Texas Invasives Database to be a great tool for identifying invasive plants.

Our yard has an abundance of privet (or ligustrum) and heavenly bamboo including the abundant berries they produce (pictured above). Both plants can be seen throughout the greenbelt near our home. Although heavenly bamboo’s rust-colored leaves for fall and privet’s sweet smelling cream blossoms in the spring are tempting, it is better to leave them to areas where they are native.

Have you heard of lunar gardening? A friend mentioned it to me the very same week I read the lunar gardening article called Cultivating Self-Care with Lunar Gardening in issue 47 of Taproot Magazine (available at local bookstores, health food stores, or by mail.) The basics behind lunar gardening are to watch the moon’s phases and then to plant around the time of a full moon. The gravitational pull of the moon will make those little seeds and plants emerge with gusto. Lunar gardening is also a process of aligning yourself as a gardener with nature’s phases. It means learning to pay attention to times of energy as well as those of rest. You can download a moon phase app to track the moon or even follow the moon’s phases in the Farmers’ Almanac ($).

The greenbelt around our home is full of Indian Mallow, Lindheimer’s Senna, Goldenrod and so many other yellow plants just in time for fall. Why do pollinators love yellow plants?

WELLNESS

Nick Offerman encourages us all to get outdoors (or even better listen to the audio! * link has sound)

CREATIVITY

Not into spooky? How about some music with the sound of nature?

BOOKSHELF

I should begin by saying that science fiction and dystopian novels have never been my favorite genre, however, when I was in high school, I read Fahrenheit 451 ($). It stayed with me. The thought of books being burned. The horror! Sadly books HAVE been burned many times throughout history. Fahrenheit 451 is a dystopian novel written in 1953. I remember the book mentioning these little seashells they would use to listen to music in the story…funny how those remind me so much of the AirPods I have in my ears as I listen to my audiobooks.

The eerie way that dystopian novels walk the fine line between what is real, has happened in the past, and could happen in the future can make your skin crawl. These books challenge your brain and your heart.

This past month I read Parable of the Sower by Olivia Butler and Address Unknown by Katherine Kressman Taylor. Both novels have wisdom and foresight before their time, and both were emotionally and mentally challenging reads for me.

At only a mere 66 pages, Address Unknown, a literary classic, is a powerful novel originally published in 1938. The book was originally listed as being written by ‘Kressman Taylor’ because the publisher felt it was too powerful of a book for a woman to write.

The book, written as an epistolary novel, exposed the dangers of Nazism before the rise of Hitler and follows the story of two business partners as they write letters back and forth. Martin Schulse returns home to Munich, Germany while Max Eisenstein, who is Jewish, remains at the art gallery they both own in San Francisco.

On Hitler’s rise to power, Martin says “God grant it is a true leader and no black angel they follow so joyously. To you alone, Max, I say I do not know. Yet I hope.”

The state of Germany shifts and so does the tone of his friend’s letters.

“Alas, to us Jews they are a sad story familiar through centuries of repetition, and it’s almost unbelievable that the old martyrdom must be endured in a civilized nation today.” - Max

Address Unknown was unfortunately ignored in the United States and began disappearing in Europe as books were banned and burned around the time of Blitzkrieg at the start of World War II.

Katherine Kressman Taylor wrote the story after hearing from friends who returned to Germany and wouldn’t hear of any criticism about Hitler and no longer spoke to their Jewish friends. She wondered why “no one in America was aware of what was happening in Germany, and they also did not care.”

The isolationist movement was a big part of why America turned the other way, but students returning to America from Germany told the truth about the atrocities happening in Germany. Students would send letters to friends making fun of Hitler and their letters would return ‘address unknown’. She decided to use letters as the weapon of choice between the two friends in the story.

Address Unknown went quiet for many years until 1995 when Story Press reissued the book for the 50th anniversary. After Katherine Kressman Taylor’s death in 1996, the book went on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies and in more than 23 translations.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler was the pick for October for The Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club. This dystopian novel was a difficult read for me due its graphic nature and events that seemed a little TOO much like our current reality.

“It’s like an island surrounded by sharks - except that sharks don’t bother you unless you go in the water. But our land sharks are on their way in. It’s just a matter of how long it takes for them to get hungry enough.”

-Lauren from Parable of the Sower

Bezi Yohannes (IG @beingabookwyrm) joined The Modern Mrs. Darcy Book Club discussion on Parable of the Sower. She mentioned that Octavia Butler explored existentialism within the sci-fi genre in a new way. Parable of the Sower does what all good literature does which is to challenge the way we think about the world around us. Bezi Yohannes pointed out that Octavia Butler weaves the concept of a found family, hope in dire circumstances, a critique of the power structure and a call to action for change that benefits marginalized people, and what it means to channel empathy into action throughout the story.

Originally written in 1996, this book is set in 2025-2027. With rampant violence, poverty, and natural disasters, the main character Lauren decides at 16 that she wants to leave her walled neighborhood to form her own community called Earthseed. The book walks the reader through Lauren’s journey. Content warnings abound in this book and can be found using the Story Graph app if you would like more information. The book was originally to be written as a trilogy, but Octavia Butler died before writing the third novel.

“Into the abyss, Daughter. You’ve just noticed the abyss. The adults in this community have been balancing at the edge of it for more years than you’ve been alive.” - Lauren’s father in Parable of the Sower

Earthseed wisdom: A tree cannot grow in its parents’ shadows

Books I’m reading: The Inheritance Games ($) by Jennifer Lynn Barnes and The House on Vesper Sands ($) by Paraic O’Donnell

Books I’m listening to: Pride ($) by Ibi Zoboi (just finished and SO good!)

Books I’ve recently finished: Parable of the Sower ($) by Octavia E. Butler, Clap When You Land ($) by Elizabeth Acevedo, The Personal Librarian ($) by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, Queen Sugar ($) by Natalie Baszile, The Cemetery Boys ($) by Aiden Thomas, and Address Unknown ($) by Katherine Kressman Taylor and Margot Livesey

What’s up next on my TBR (To Be Read) list:  Dear Miss Metropolitan ($) by Carolyn Ferrell, Harlem Shuffle ($) by Colson Whitehead, and Another Brooklyn ($) by Jacqueline Woodson, Shiner ($) by Amy Jo Burns, Cloud Cuckoo Land ($) by Anthony Doerr, Braiding Sweetgrass ($) by Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Mountains Sing ($) by Man Phan Que Nguyen

In case you are looking for book recommendations for kids (or yourself!), gift ideas for all ages or want to peek into my TBR List for 2021, head over to the 52 Seasons Book Shop on Bookshop.org.

COMMUNITY

I was lucky enough to listen to a Texas Book Festival event this week called “Jobs, Meaning, and What Happens When Work Disappears.” From the labor movement, workers reporting unsafe working conditions, overwork in our society in general, and the term “The Great Resignation” that is all over the news, the authors and moderator covered it all!

Now I’m looking forward to diving in to learn more by picking up their books (included below).

Help CatSpring Yaupon Tea, a small business here in Austin, Texas, provide quality boots for their employees and hopefully other harvest employees in the community in the future with a Bootbank donation. To understand why this donation is so vital, read more on Terry Pratchett’s ‘boots theory’ on socioeconomic unfairness.

Share with us your thoughts in the comments section below.

Enjoy your spooky weekend :)

"Do your little bit of good where you are; it's those little bits of good put together that overwhelm the world." - Desmond Tutu

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