A Brief Review of Robert Kurson's "Rocket Men" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - March 13, 2026 - Two high-profile assassinations, race riots, violent anti-war demonstrations, subversive countercultures, and Cold War threats of nuclear annihilation pummeled America into one of its darkest hours. No, I’m not talking about any year between 2019 and 2026; I’m talking about 1968—when the country was coming apart at the seams. But just like any story where the hero steps up to save the day at the last possible moment, NASA’s Apollo 8 year-end mission not only rescued America from imploding on itself, but it also saved the world.

Whereas Lily Koppel touched on the historic mission from the wives’ viewpoint in her terrific book The Astronaut Wives Club (2013), Robert Kurson’s Rocket Men (2018) recounts the story from the perspective of the three heroic astronauts themselves. Like most earthbound stargazers, I was under the impression that Apollo 11 was NASA’s greatest achievement, but even the first man to set foot on the lunar surface, Neil Armstrong, put Apollo 8’s mission at the top of the list. I whole-heartedly recommend these two books. While Koppel’s book offers the reader a complete background on all three NASA programs—Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo—Kurson’s focuses solely on Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders, the first men to orbit the moon.

Earlier today, as I drove to the library to return Rocket Men, I was saddened by the fact that interest in space exploration seems to have faded away with the 1960s. While I watched the book disappear behind a wall, I had to wonder who—or what—would save America in 2026.

“Houston, we have a problem.”

-Chuck Trunks

"This work was written independently by the author without the use of generative AI."

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

A Brief Review of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender Is the Night" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - March 8, 2026 - Google summarizes its definition of the Lost Generation, a term coined by Gertrude Stein, as the generation who came of age during World War I. With what we know of the conflict and its aftermath, it isn’t hard to understand how these young adults—especially in France and Italy—became spiritually adrift, deeming pre-war moral and traditional values as no longer relevant. Whereas Stein, an American writer and poet living in Paris, identified the social movement, Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald popularized it in The Sun Also Rises (1926) and Tender Is the Night (1934).

I finished reading Tender Is the Night—one of only four Fitzgerald novels—a week earlier, and I still can’t stop thinking about it. Similar to Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises, Fitzgerald’s story centers around complicated and deeply flawed American expatriates living in post-war Europe. However, Fitzgerald’s characters are more aristocratic, intellectual, and refined—yet they still pursue what everyone wants: acceptance for their true selves and romantic love. What results is a timeless tale—one relatable even in today’s screen-rich society. Whether you see yourself in one or more of the characters or are drawn to the complexity of their misgivings, Tender Is the Night offers a haunting, unforgettable descent into the gilded world of the restless elite.

If you can get through Fitzgerald’s pedantic attentiveness to cultural details, poetic prose, and uneven pacing, you’ll be rewarded with a rich story that—if you’re like me—will make you believe we’re living among several lost generations right now.

-Chuck Trunks

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

NEW STORY coming this spring: "Pillars of Society" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)!

Nampa, Idaho - March 4, 2026 - Do you know what the United States of Private Equity Firms needs right now? A lower cost of living? Non-profit health care? A government that actually represents the interests of its taxpayers? Nope. It needs an allegorical tale of personal transcendence as told through the interactions between four fuzzy caterpillars. Carl, Bethany, Fitz, and Sigmund live and work in a colony located in a secluded pond surrounded by wetland trees and dotted with water lilies. Each represents one of four distinct, survivalist responses to crumbling capitalism and the ascent of fascism.

All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

"A Rationale for Being" by Chuck Trunks offers an escape route from the United States of Dystopia. This is Trunks Art's ninth book.

Nampa, Idaho - February 25, 2026 - An excerpt from Chapter 4 - "It's less about convincing people of my interpretation of the grand design and more about helping them understand their feelings about what I shared regarding the body and mind. I'm not trying to win a popularity contest. I'm trying to kick-start a billion or more internal conversations so that they, too, can discover the last remaining escape route."

Back cover:

There was a time when I felt safe—shielded from what lurks within the underbelly of a society predicated on corruption, exploitation, and manipulation. “I’m too smart, too aware, to be seduced by the ruling class’s lies,” I’d tell myself. But then one day, you wake up and find yourself exactly where you said you’d never be—smack dab in the middle of the spider’s web. Reality hits hard: nobody’s coming to save you. That’s when I realized it was up to me to save myself.

Although packaged within a playfully fictitious storyline acted out in a fifth-grade classroom in Idaho and at CBS Studios in New York City, A Rationale for Being—while utilizing a handful of fascinating scientific facts and well-understood psychological theories presented in the first three chapters of the book—concludes with a philosophical message that offers a way back to what you allowed others to take from you.

A Rationale for Being may be filled with interesting characters, passion, humor, and imagination, but make no mistake—this is the story of how I was able to save myself.

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

A Brief Review of Bill O'Reilly's "Killing Reagan" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - February 23, 2026 - If you like historical events and true-life stories and harbor a secret penchant for the salacious, then Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Series is for you. So far, I’ve read eight of the 13 books, adding Killing Reagan to my list earlier this month. His books always leave me feeling both satisfied and disillusioned: satisfied by newfound knowledge, yet disappointed that his unique insights and writing style have not been more embraced by educators or the media. Prior to reading this book, I assumed I was highly informed about the 40^th President of the United States.

My confidence stemmed from several notable factors: he was the president for half my high school years and all of my college years; he was the governor of California while I was attending elementary school in Los Angeles; I grew up in a Republican-centered family and community; I’ve visited the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California, three times; and (despite his dementia from Alzheimer’s) I said, “Good morning, Mr. President,” to him from 10 feet away in Santa Monica in 1996. Yet, nothing in my previous experiences could have prepared me for the shocking revelations in Bill O’Reilly’s Killing Reagan.

I think it’s hard to write stories—especially stories that most people think they’ve already heard. But this is the very essence of Bill O’Reilly’s brilliance. He recounts historical events from unique perspectives that weave both facts and human interests into a framework of masterful storytelling. Can you imagine how daunting it would be if you were asked to write a book about Elvis, John F. Kennedy, or General George Custer? With so much having been written about these iconic individuals, you’d probably tell yourself there’s nothing more to say about them. Not only could Bill O’Reilly write the book and add it to his Killing Series, but he’d also write a New York Times bestseller you couldn’t put down.

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

"A RATIONALE FOR BEING" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art) is on Amazon NOW! This is the author's 9th book.

Nampa, Idaho - February 17, 2026 - Back cover blurb: There was a time when I felt safe—shielded from what lurks within the underbelly of a society predicated on corruption, exploitation, and manipulation. “I’m too smart, too aware, to be seduced by the ruling class’s lies,” I’d tell myself. But then one day, you wake up and find yourself exactly where you said you’d never be—smack dab in the middle of the spider’s web. Reality hits hard: nobody’s coming to save you. That’s when I realized it was up to me to save myself.

Although packaged within a playfully fictitious storyline acted out in a fifth-grade classroom in Idaho and at CBS Studios in New York City, A Rationale for Being—while utilizing a handful of fascinating scientific facts and well-understood psychological theories presented in the first three chapters of the book—concludes with a philosophical message that offers a way back to what you allowed others to take from you.

A Rationale for Being may be filled with interesting characters, passion, humor, and imagination, but make no mistake—this is the story of how I was able to save myself.

- - - - - 

All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

A Brief Review of Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - February 15, 2026 - I first encountered Carl Sagan in 1980 via my family’s 19-inch floor console—a TV sturdy enough to withstand a Cold War-era nuclear blast. Cosmos: A Personal Voyage aired weekly on PBS and featured 13 episodes centered around cosmology and its connection to the origin of life. He wasn’t just a renowned astronomer and planetary scientist; he was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author nobly focused on advancing the public’s understanding of science.

I purchased The Demon-Haunted World (1995) thinking he’d written a book warning us what would happen to society if the soon-to-be-extinct scientific mindset—a combination of both wonder and skepticism—wasn’t revitalized within the next 20 or 30 years. Instead, he wrote a book about how the lack of wonder and skepticism allowed outrageous claims made by politicians, bureaucrats, corporations, theologians, and pseudoscientists to proceed unchecked throughout history. It’s a long book that, in my opinion, spends too much time detailing UFO abductions, witch hunts, and religious dogma.

Carl Sagan was an incredibly smart man whose explanation about the importance of books made me a lifelong reader; however, I struggled to finish The Demon-Haunted World, thinking I should’ve started with one of his more popular books, Cosmos or Contact. 

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

A Brief Review of Hemingway's "The Sun Also Rises" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - February 10, 2026 - Ernest Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises (1926) was published 100 years ago, and yet, I found myself reading a story that could’ve been written yesterday—that is, if you could pretend that 30 years of excessive busyness and screen time didn’t dumb down America, unplugging human connection and erasing any semblance of what we used to call “community.” The premise of the story is extraordinarily simple—a group of friends travel from France to Spain to enjoy a week-long festival in Pamplona; however, each of Hemingway’s main characters is complicated, self-defeating, and deeply flawed—just like me and anyone else who doesn’t lie to themselves.  

 

Set in Europe at a time when the populace was beginning to feel far enough away from the aftermath of WW1 to begin enjoying life again, The Sun Also Rises offers a firsthand account of the author’s adventurous and tumultuous life as an overseas expatriate. Of course, the book is categorized as literary fiction, but how could it not be autobiographical when he describes everything in such vivid detail? I kept saying to myself, “He had to have been there—doing those things—with those people.” And sure enough, after a brief internet search, I found pictures of Hemingway sitting with friends in a crowded Spanish café and tempting fate as an amateur bullfighter in Pamplona—both from 1925. But that isn’t why I loved his first novel.

 

I connected with The Sun Also Rises because I could see my own flaws in not only one or two of his main characters but in all of them, reducing me from a passive reader to a hapless voyeur, devouring a hedonistic storyline chock full of debauchery, impulsiveness, insecurity, pettiness, and promiscuity. Hemingway is famous for his signature narrative style, but he was a master at understanding base human nature, which, apparently, hasn’t changed much—if at all—in the last 100 years or so.

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

NEW BOOK (no.9) coming this month: "A RATIONALE FOR BEING" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - February 2, 2026 - There was a time when I felt safe—shielded from what lurks within the underbelly of a society predicated on corruption, exploitation, and manipulation. “I’m too smart, too aware, to be seduced by the ruling class’s lies,” I’d tell myself. But then one day, you wake up and find yourself exactly where you said you’d never be—smack dab in the middle of the spider’s web. Reality hits hard: nobody’s coming to save you. That’s when I realized it was up to me to save myself.

Although packaged within a playfully fictitious storyline acted out in a fifth-grade classroom in Idaho and at CBS Studios in New York City, A Rationale for Being—while utilizing a handful of fascinating scientific facts and well-understood psychological theories presented in the first three chapters of the book—concludes with a philosophical message that offers a way back to what you allowed others to take from you.

A Rationale for Being may be filled with interesting characters, passion, humor, and imagination, but make no mistake—this is the story of how I was able to save myself.

All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

A Brief Review of Hemingway's "The Old Man and the Sea" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - January 26, 2026 - As a teen in the 1970s, I distinctly recall reading Ernest Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea (1952) during my sophomore or junior year. Back then, I was old enough to appreciate the story of a Cuban fisherman’s struggle against nature to catch a massive marlin but too young to grasp the deeper meaning of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novella. After reading it again 45 years later, I’m both awed and humbled by Hemingway’s signature writing style, which, in this case, is mostly limited to Santiago’s thoughts and conversations he has with himself. However, once I understood the Nobel Prize-winning author’s underlying message buried within a simple story of enduring hardship, I had to ask myself, “Why would high school English teachers think The Old Man and the Sea is a book for 16-year-olds?”

Honestly, I don’t think I could’ve appreciated Hemingway’s cautionary reminder that dignity can still be had in failure during my 30s, 40s, or even my 50s. What I’m trying to say is that I believe one needs to have come up short many times in life before the sentient message behind The Old Man and the Sea can be properly acknowledged and valued. “Is it possible to fail with dignity?” Hemingway had an answer. “Yes, it’s the only way to fail.” 

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

Did you know that Photosynthesis isn't possible without Quantum Physics?

Nampa, Idaho - January 14, 2026 - An excerpt from Chapter 7: Every Day Quantum:

“So physics plays a part in photosynthesis?” asked Ines.

“It not only plays a part—it plays an essential part. The process of photosynthesis begins 93 million miles away, on the surface of the sun. After an eight-minute journey to earth, thousands of trillions of red and blue light photons are absorbed by plant cells each second. The photons then make their way to organelles inside the plant cells called chloroplasts. After penetrating the chloroplasts, the photons continue into the thylakoid membranes, which are comprised of stacks of discs containing light-capturing molecules called chlorophyll. Once inside the chlorophyll, the photon interacts with a magnesium atom, creating an organic battery called an exciton. The exciton has one millionth of a microsecond to travel to the reaction center enzyme to kick-start the actual process of photosynthesis before the battery loses its charge. Are you with me so far?”

“Definitely,” replied Ines, who gave up trying to eat her chicken with utensils.

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Back Cover:

What if you were lucky enough to come across something that gave you the power to rise above what we're all experiencing in these trying times? And what if you wanted to share it with the rest of the world but realized that your life-changing revelation was understandably complicated and couldn't be offered to the masses through a simple meme, sound bite, or video clip? 

Physics from the Heart: A Quantum Story is on Amazon Books now.

Physics from the Heart: A Quantum Story solves this dilemma by packaging its sentient message within a narrative that reads less like a textbook and more like a lighthearted screenplay. Not only will readers find themselves painlessly becoming closet experts on one of the most famous discoveries in all of science, but they'll also be able to connect it to the world around them, including consciousness.

Like any good movie, Physics from the Heart is relatable, entertaining, unpredictable, and even comes with a surprise ending that explains why this book will leave you feeling both empowered and happy. 💖

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All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

TRUNKS ART doesn't just create art and write...he puts in the miles, too! How else can I think and find inspiration?

Nampa, Idaho - January 14, 2026 - I didn’t actually run to Atlanta from Boise, but that’s where I would’ve ended up had I not covered nearly six miles every single day in South Carolina and Idaho in 2025.

All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

A Brief Review of Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - January 7, 2026 - A Farewell to Arms (1929) by Ernest Hemingway is one of those books that most people have heard of but haven’t read. Up until a few days ago, I was one of those people. Set in the ravaged countryside of Italy during WW1, the book wasn’t anything I had expected. Of course, it was written in the author’s signature style—direct, minimalistic, and unapologetically masculine—but it was less about the horrors of a senseless war and more about a budding love affair that had me rooting for the couple as soon as they met. Normally, I stay away from romance novels, but this one checked all the boxes for me.

Although the story takes place on another continent more than 100 years ago, the polite discourse between all the characters—no matter their role in the novel—is a sad reminder of how today’s public spaces lack any semblance of manners that help create a sense of community. Obviously, life was harder back then, and yet, while reading A Farewell to Arms, I found myself wishing I was born much earlier than I was—not just to meet and fall in love with Catherine, but to enjoy a time when discovering and befriending people meant something.

All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).

NEW BOOK (no.9) coming this winter: "A RATIONALE FOR BEING" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - January 5, 2026 - Ahh, yes, I have another book coming out this winter. It’s a departure from my usual fare of societal observations and criticisms. A Rationale for Being is only four chapters and addresses the existential question: Why do I exist? There are discussions around biology, genetics, chemistry, atomic physics, metaphysics, quantum mechanics, and cosmology, but don’t worry—the whole thing is packed inside a cupcake of a story.

All my books can be found on Amazon. 💓💓💓

Trunks Art moved from Columbia, South Carolina, to Nampa, Idaho, in 2025 and has made this city his home and writing inspiration.

To see more of my work, please have a look at more posts or email me at chucktrunks@gmail.com. Or, visit my website at www.trunksart.com.  Also, you can find me on Instagram (chucktrunks) and Facebook (Chuck Trunks).