It was one of the loveliest days in early autumn, and the general atmosphere had a tendency to subdue every feeling of the heart and threw me in a thoughtful mood. ~Charles Lanman, “Musings,” 1840
As we leave the long days of summer I continue to work on revising and completing my novel “Trade Winds” as well as drafting short story ideas. From those, a new short story, NO ONE, has been added to my catalog for submission.
During an unexpected rainstorm NO ONE takes notice as an artist waits to meet a potential model in a café. The overcrowded refuge gives Sheila the opportunity to anonymously observe the man who bears a resemblance to the prowler who invaded her studio a year ago. Amidst the cacophony and chaos of those trapped in the cafe, Sheila contemplates if he could be the unidentified intruder.
My latest published short story went live online last month (September 2025). “The Death of Leonardo” finds two men discussing Leonardo DaVinci’s death while reflecting upon unfinished affairs in their lives.
And like that, the summer is over, winding down with the last of the eighty degree days slowly disappearing here in Denver. Autumn still finds us strolling Saturday mornings among the venders and farms at Denver’s City Park Farmers Market to complement produce from my wife Kit’s garden, which is winding down. We had the last of the summer tomato BLT’s last week.
My end of summer reading included:
The wonderful A Month in the Country by J.L. Carr, Michael Holroyd, considered by some to be “virtually flawless” in its execution. Short and poetic the Booker Prize nominated Month in the Country is a delightful read as J.L. Carr takes you to the English countryside as Tom Birkin a veteran of the First World War, heals from his demons as he uncovers a painted over mural in a local church.
Sort of, kind of the inspiration for the Pogues ‘Fairytale of New York’ , the quirky A Fairy Tale of New York by J. P. Donleavy, follows Cornelius Christian’s successes and failures at being repatriated upon returning to New York City from Ireland.*
On my TBR list for some time Star 111 (German: Stern 111) by Lutz Seiler, is a street level look at the Unification of Germany through the eyes of a young man. Brick layer, student, poet, Carl Bischoff, and his friends have taken over and squatted in the abandoned apartments of East Berlin hoping for a better life in the new Germany. There’s also a goat.
A sign of the times, The Gringo Champion by Aura Xilonen (Author), Andrea Rosenberg (Translator), masterfully tells the tale of the young illegal immigrant Liborio forced to leave Mexico. A talented (?) street fighter Liborio’s anger and fierceness are channeled into becoming a boxer which might give him the shot at succeeding in his new home the United States.
For fun I picked up, How To Kill Friends and Implicate People by Jay Stringer, which had me rooting for the hit man. Mr. Stringer’s writing is filled with plenty of brilliantly complicated twists and turns that make you wonder if you may have been set up from the beginning.
A quick note on the above titles. I provided links to Amazon as a courtesy and receive no renumeration from Amazon, however I do feel that they provide in-depth book descriptions which I believe is a good place to start when searching for new titles to read.
As I have said before I cannot say enough about Internet Archive dot com. They are a valuable tool for research as well as a treasure trove of hard-to-find online books. I found these titles there.
No one writes to the Colonel by García Márquez, Gabriel a collection of short stories by Colombian Gabriel García Márquez who felt that the title piece, a novella written when he lived in Paris (1956-1957), to be his best work.
Frighteningly timely, the 1935 It can’t happen here: a novel by Sinclair Lewis, takes place in 1930’s fictional America as it sinks into fascism. I had to read this in short bursts as the parallels sometimes felt too close to what is happening today.
I did surrender and re-read On the Road by Jack Kerouac, after watching “Kerouac’s Road: The Beat of a Nation,” a Writer, a Book, a Legend and a Legacy a 2025 documentary directed by Ebs Burnough. “It’s not like a perfect book,” (Matt) Dillon says of the Benzedrine-fueled road narrative. “But here we are, all these years later, talking about it.”
Until next time. Peace
* If you have never heard The Pogues – Fairytale Of New York (Official Video) you can do so here.
Note on the cover photo: Aspens, Frisco, CO (October 2022)
Duane M. Engelhardt 