"Silver Linings in a Mad World" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art): How are some people unscathed by societal toxicity? Read and find out!

Nampa, Idaho - April 30, 2026 - An excerpt from Chapter 6 (Columbia Bound):

To me, the best attributes of being human are like stars we can see in the night sky. If you were with me, I’d point at a cluster of stars just above the trees on the other side of the pond and say, “Look over there! You can see cooperation, generosity, and accountability.” Then we’d walk for a bit, appreciating the soft breeze and silence, until I’d stop and point upwards again. “Can you believe it?” I’d ask. “If you look between those two clouds, you’ll see humility, loyalty, and compassion.” As luck would have it, we’d stumble upon an abandoned rowboat that was practically begging us to climb aboard. We’d quietly push away from the bank toward the center of the pond, the only sound coming from the water dripping off the lifted oars.

Back Cover:

Six true stories comprise Silver Linings in a Mad World. I specifically chose these confounding and disappointing personal events because they reflect my feelings about today’s public space, where an elite ruling class forces the working slaves of America to exchange their humanity for basic needs.

 

But is it really fair to place all of the blame on our corrupted government, monopolizing corporations, and billionaires with more wealth than the pharaohs of Ancient Egypt? While some of us will exercise free will to rise above the dystopian gloom, others appear unaffected by it. What’s their story? Are they merely robots programmed by mainstream indoctrination? Or are they simply ignorant, lost within a new America whose constitution begins with “I, the Person?” That may be true for the majority, but I discovered a different reason, a silver lining that affords a fortunate few happiness, purpose, and love despite living in a mad world.

-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 Hermann Hesse's "The Journey to the East" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - April 25, 2026 - When I discovered that Hermann Hesse’s The Journey to the East (1932) was written as a follow-up to his famous novel, Steppenwolf (1927), a book I finished reading just last month, I was intrigued, expecting a continuation of the life and times of his despairing alter ego, Harry Haller. Instead, I was introduced to an entirely different kind of tale based on a mythical pilgrimage to find answers to life’s most existential questions. However, I wasn’t disappointed, as Hesse is well known for having established his niche between embracing the gift of life and sensing the absurdity of it all.

While reading The Journey to the East, I was asked innocently enough by a fellow bookworm, “What’s it about, and are you liking it so far?” Honestly, I didn’t know what to tell her. “I have no idea—the jury’s still out on this one,” I replied. Thankfully, the obstinate old mule in me kept me on task, prodding me along to finish reading the book in its entirety. Whether I was reading about a dream remembered by the central character, an older man in his early 60s, or a figment of his imagination, it didn’t matter—the theme was clear: H.H. was after spiritual meaning in a world dominated by busyness and superficiality.

Hesse suggests, at the conclusion of his novella, in a scene reminiscent of a Greek tribunal if it were held in St. Peter’s Basilica, that we achieve true spiritual meaning simply by providing service to others, which is congruent with my philosophy regarding human suffering. Through personal experience, I’ve discovered that we’re all suffering in some way or another. Be it self-inflicted or imposed by misfortune, suffering finds its only solace in relieving the pain of another. So when I see my reading friend again, I plan to tell her, “The verdict is in.” The Journey to the East isn’t a book I’d recommend to just anyone; it’s for readers who are already familiar with the path of enlightenment.

-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 John Steinbeck's "The Grapes of Wrath" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - April 20, 2026 - Had I read John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath (1939) in high school, college, or even 20 years ago, I would’ve said, “Thank goodness those wretched days are behind us.” But after finishing this most famous book yesterday, I now understand the French aphorism, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” In the 1930s, drought, economic collapse, and advances in industry and technology displaced well over 2 million Americans, mostly from plains states like Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri. Instead of receiving the help they desperately needed, their innocence, ignorance, and disadvantage became targets of inhumane treatment by cold-hearted profiteers who saw these hungry and homeless people as threats to their livelihoods and opportunities for exploitation.

The story follows the multi-generational Joad family, tenant farmers from Sallisaw, Oklahoma, as they head west on Route 66 in a modified 1926 Hudson sedan toward Bakersfield, California. On the way, they suffer one indignity after another—usually at the hands of deputies hired by powerful landowners to keep the unwanted “Okies” moving west. The exhausted Joads endure unspeakable catastrophes on the way to the promises of work and prosperity, driven by the unyielding will of their matriarch, Ma. Yet, upon their arrival in the soil-rich Central Valley of California, they encounter even worse tragedy and abject poverty.

As I read the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, I couldn’t help but draw parallels between Depression Era America and the post-COVID 2020s, where present-day record-level wealth and income inequality, artificial intelligence, robotic automation, and global warming are driving a substantial percentage of the population from the supposed American Dream to an unsettling hand-to-mouth existence. The Grapes of Wrath shatters the illusion of a just and benevolent society, offering instead a harrowing, raw look at the sickening business mantra of “greed over human need”—a reality best understood by those who have been reduced to mere casualties of the all-important profit margin.

-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).

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

Nampa, Idaho - April 7, 2026 - An excerpt: “When I first met you,” Fitz continued, “you seemed like a normal caterpillar—a little too serious and particular for my taste, but I liked you anyway. Back then, you were married, had a nine-to-five job, and lived in a house you owned. You used to do things and go places. Now, you’re single, don’t work, and rent where they’ll have you. You isolate yourself, dedicating all your time to reading, writing, and researching topics nobody cares about anymore. And yet, you walk around with this self-importance, believing you have the answers to life’s most mysterious questions as if—”

“Fitz, that’s enough!” hissed Bethany.

 

The premise: 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.

 

-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 Hunter S. Thompson's "The Rum Diary" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - March 30, 2026 - I finally got my chance to read a Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005) book when I saw The Rum Diary (1998) on the same library shelf containing works by Thoreau, Tolkien, and Twain. Up until that moment of discovery, most of what I had heard about the controversial author convinced me he was a half-crazed lunatic, known for womanizing, boozing, wielding guns, and having pioneered a method of writing referred to as “gonzo journalism,” a subjective and personal style where the author is central to the story, blending fact with fiction for optimal engagement.

The Rum Diary is set in Puerto Rico during the late 1950s, an island I called home for nearly two years while commuting for work from Los Angeles at the dawn of the new millennium. Back then, the buzz was about how the Y2K computer problem threatened to send the civilized world, including the Caribbean, back to the dark ages. But in Mr. Thompson’s second novel—written when he was only 22 years old—the buzz in Puerto Rico was centered around the exploitation of a peaceful, beautiful island—before Kennedy and Castro.

The main character, Paul Kemp, is a down-on-his-luck, world-traveling journalist who settles into a precarious job writing for The San Juan Daily News, a volatile and fledgling English-language newspaper filled with rum-sucking coworkers with anger issues who entangle Paul with nefarious businessmen, sadistic policemen, sex-fueled women, devil-may-care partying, and sheer recklessness. Simply stated, The Rum Diary is a highly entertaining novel that captivated me from the very beginning. It’s the kind of story you’d read under the covers with a flashlight because your parents forbid you to read it. Afterwards, you’d understand why they didn’t want you to read it—but you’d be glad you did.

-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 Hermann Hesse's "Steppenwolf" by Chuck Trunks (Trunks Art)

Nampa, Idaho - March 22, 2026 - A year ago, I discovered the word “Steppenwolf” is more than just the name of a 1960s rock band responsible for the iconic counterculture anthem “Born to Be Wild.” Steppenwolf (1927) is also the title of one of Hermann Hesse’s most famous novels, a psychological and existential thriller about a man torn between his humanity and his natural inclination toward wolfish loneliness. Ten days ago, I brought it home with me from the library; by the time I finished reading the preface that evening, I was thinking, I’m not only the same age as the wretched protagonist, Harry Haller, but I’m also exactly like him! Oh no!

Hermann Hesse (1877-1962), a German-Swiss novelist and Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1946, published Steppenwolf at the age of 50. In it, he describes a society that is as lost and rudderless as the one we live in today—just substitute radios and gramophones for the internet. What made Steppenwolf interesting to me was the main character—no doubt an alter ego of the author—who struggles, like many of us, with the duality of human nature: spirituality versus physical indulgence, intellect versus emotion. Each time I turned the pages, I kept reminding myself that Mr. Hesse was describing a medium-sized German town in the late 1920s—and not Los Angeles, California, in the 2000s, Boise, Idaho, in the 2010s, or Columbia, South Carolina, in the 2020s.

I am like the anti-hero Harry Haller in that I, too, am aware—and deeply troubled—by the evil truths that underpin so-called “civilized society.” It isn’t until Harry meets Hermine, a young lady of dubious distinction, that he is coerced into confronting his self-defeating behaviors. This confrontation climaxes in a conclusion that one would think impossible to imagine—let alone write—more than a hundred years ago. It reads like an Edgar Allen Poe rewrite of a Hans Christian Andersen story, directed by Stanley Kubrick. It’s wild, macabre, and voyeuristic—an unsettling ending to Hesse’s Steppenwolf, a book I won’t soon forget.

-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).

"Be Still My Heart: A Code for Love" has resonated with so many readers. What's your story? Do you agree or disagree with mine?

Nampa, Idaho  - March 16, 2026 - An excerpt from Chapter 5: My modus operandi was always the same. If our initial phone conversation was going well, I’d find out about her availability and willingness to meet before saying, “I’ll come up with a plan and text you sometime tomorrow.” By this time in the online dating game, I had already figured out that since I was the one who was expected to plan and pay for the initial meetup, I might as well suit myself. After all, these weren’t real dates, plus I had yet to lay eyes on any of these women. I figured meeting at a neighborhood bar within walking distance from my apartment for a beer or a glass of wine would make everyone happy—they didn’t have to come up with an idea or bring their wallet, and I could enjoy a leisurely walk to an inexpensive evening with a relative stranger.

Be Still My Heart: A Code for Love is on Amazon now.

Back Cover:

How many times do we have to be told to step outside our comfort zone before it becomes "You're just not trying hard enough?" At first, I bristled at such tiresome platitudes, yet there I was, rolling up my sleeves, putting myself out there, and believing that life gives you exactly what you put into it.

But does it? Has life really given you exactly what you deserve? When so many of us can't find romantic love, meaningful work, a true friend, a permanent home, or enough money to live on, I can't help but think that something other than our own poor choices and self-defeating behaviors is working behind the scenes to keep us from acquiring happiness, success, and fulfillment. To me, it just doesn't add up.

Be Still My Heart: A Code for Love will not only reveal what's hidden behind the curtain, but you'll also come to understand that your lot in life isn't all your fault.  💖💖💖 

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 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).