C.K. Brooks (Author of A Captive's Portion)

Chendall Brooks wants to read Hannah Arendt: A Life in Dark Times by Anne C. Heller	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Chendall Brooks has read Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Jul 28, 2026 02:50PM · like
Chendall Brooks rated a book really liked it The Vision of Ayn Rand: The Basic Principles of Objectivism by Nathaniel Branden	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Where to start? There is a lot to digest here, but overall, Branden does a fantastic job of codifying Rand's philosophies as gleaned from both his close association with her and from her books. At one point, Rand even said that Branden was the only o ...more
Jul 28, 2026 01:50PM · like · see review
Chendall Brooks rated a book really liked it Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens (Goodreads Author)	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
This is interesting to rate. Narratively, Where the Crawdads Sing is strange, moving from what feels like a fictionalized memoir or romance with ruminations on variations of a naturalistic/materialistic worldview to a courtroom thriller. The writing ...more
Jul 10, 2026 06:58PM · 1 like · like · see review
Chendall Brooks rated a book liked it The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
I could go deeper into this novel and its themes, perhaps explaining why it might be considered a classic, but due to a general disinterest and lack of time, I will keep this review short. The novel follows a teenager named Holden. He is expelled from ...more
Jul 10, 2026 06:42PM · like · see review
Chendall Brooks rated a book liked it The Selected Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Due to the immense workload I currently find myself under, this review will be short, although due to the influence and magnitude of the story, it probably deserves a fuller discussion than what I will provide here. In short, Fischer's translation, if ...more
Jul 10, 2026 06:30PM · like · see review
Chendall Brooks rated a book it was amazing Ayn Rand and the World She Made by Anne C. Heller	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Every year, I select one of the books that I read to be book of the year, and as of the writing of this review, this is the frontrunner. I was first introduced to Rand through Atlas Shrugged. For all my philosophical disagreement with the author, I l ...more
Jun 19, 2026 06:54AM · like · see review
Chendall Brooks liked Michael Brooks's review of Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church: "I read this book knowing that Gupta would probably take positions I may not agree with. But, I practice reading widely and critically for the following purposes: 1) For my own personal educational benefits. 2) To hear opposing views and better wrestle " Read more of this review »
Jun 17, 2026 05:50PM · see review
Chendall Brooks rated a book liked it The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins by Mark Twain	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
Pudd'nhead Wilson is very Twain, I guess that's where I begin. As one of the realist writers, Twain always sought to emphasize writing in the dialect spoken and to depict reality as it was, and in this, Twain always uniquely succeeds. Pudd'nhead Wilso ...more
Jun 11, 2026 07:42AM · like · see review
Chendall Brooks rated a book really liked it The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
The Sun Also Rises is better than The Old Man and the Sea, by a longshot, first off. Hemingway says something here, and while his enigmatic style of writing, the iceberg theory (where much of the narrative goes unspoken), it provides the story with a ...more
Jun 11, 2026 07:38AM · like · see review

Chendall Brooks wants to read

Hannah Arendt: A Life in Dark Times
by Anne C. Heller

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Heart of Darkness
by Joseph Conrad

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The Vision of Ayn Rand by Nathaniel Branden

The Vision of Ayn Rand: The Basic Principles of Objectivism
by Nathaniel Branden

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Where to start? There is a lot to digest here, but overall, Branden does a fantastic job of codifying Rand's philosophies as gleaned from both his close association with her and from her books. At one point, Rand even said that Branden was the only o Where to start? There is a lot to digest here, but overall, Branden does a fantastic job of codifying Rand's philosophies as gleaned from both his close association with her and from her books. At one point, Rand even said that Branden was the only one who could speak authoritatively on Objectivism. Regardless of Rand's change of mind later (which, incidentally, also cuts the legs out of either Branden's Objectivism or her's as portrayed in this book, but I digress), Branden at the time of putting this together was one of the only two authorities on Objectivism. Leonard Piekoff, the eventual heir to the throne of Objectivism, would struggle to attain even a small amount of Branden's authority here. So, in other words, Branden's description of Rand's philosophy is probably as close as one will get to a systematic doctrine of Objectivism.

I have an academic interest in Objectivism but disagree with its assumptions and therefore strongly so with the majority of its conclusions (although some of its doctrines have been personally influential); listening to Branden is an interesting experience for me (I listened to the lecture series from which this book is derived). Branden covers topics of epistemology, morality, ethics, government, god, sex, self-esteem, reason and virtue, 'mysticism', economics, and purpose. He also fits in a literary study of Rand's works including We The Living, Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged. For those looking for the encapsulated premises and conclusions of an Objectivist, this covers it all.

As for the lecture series itself, Branden's work is exactly what you'd expect from an Objectivist. With an uneven application of logic drawn from assumptions and premises that they refuse to prove or question, he just as often supports the Objectivist position as he does spend his time critiquing the positions of others.

He spends a great deal of time critiquing what he (and Rand) call the "mystics" (his derogatory term for anyone that believes in a god). Branden, almost worse than Rand, simplifies the Christian doctrine (which he takes most regular aim at) down to self-sacrifice, spending a great deal of time straw-manning the Christian view. He does this in the regular. It is both unnerving (although not surprising; Objectivists hate Christians) and pitiful for someone with such a great degree of arrogance for his own superior ability to reason (taking on the real tenets and positions of Christians is much more difficult, although perhaps the average Christian may not do that reputation any favors). It would have been more intellectually interesting for Branden to have addressed real issues and positions, not the ones he and Rand made up in their mind that others hold. Don't even get me started on his arguments against the existence of God.

Brand straw-mans the most difficult arguments, which, of course he has to. He can't actually win a real debate on the origin of things and he doesn't have any clue as to Christian theology.

That having been said, I applaud Objectivist ethics because at least they arrive at the expedient and reasonable conclusion from an atheistic worldview that the self is all that matters. There isn't any other way to slice it, from a naturalistic, humanistic perspective.

In spite of these areas of contention, Branden does a fantastic job of explaining the ethic of the ego in Objectivist philosophy, the relation of work to that idea and self-sacrifice as a moral evil. At the bottom of the well of Objectivist philosophy is the mind's use of reason, and from that Branden (and Rand) argues that all morality is centered on the self and the free implementation of the mind to the objective reality of the world around them (thus the name, Objectivism). From this self comes their ethic that confining reason is evil. From this self comes personal values (the application of reason and personal admiration for compatible values) which are sourced in universal values (the use of the reason by the mind). From this self comes ethics, placing the productivity of man's mind as sacred. The Objectivist epistemology is reality, citing A is A as an argument for the positive assertion of existence, however it fails to address causes. Branden and Rand postulate existence and reality as an irreducible primary and therefore never explain why that might be true, however it guides everything about their belief system.

Although this review appears to be more a loose collection of thoughts, it should at least give insight into Branden's codification of Objectivism and serves as an important founding document to these ideals. Anyone with an interest in the subject should take this as a central pillar of understanding this flawed philosophical system. Branden constantly draws from Rand's writings and I assume his own long conversations with Rand in putting this together.

In total, it is well-presented if not flawed for the same reason that all atheistic philosophical systems are flawed. It is unable to answer first order problems and therefore holds premises because of a sort of methodological naturalism. That said, it is at least an attempt to put together a cogent view of the universe apart from the borrowed capital of theism that the modern atheist uses to prop up their own view of the universe including issues like morality (why shouldn't I kill or harm my enemy?), origins (if matter is eternal, does that make it god, or if matter isn't, where did it all come from?), purpose (why does my life matter?), and others. Branden and Rand do the academic service of at least rejecting those ideas whose origin they disagree with, and therefore it is an interesting yet vain attempt to codify a philosophical system to address all the important questions that greet people today and in the 1950s.

In total, 4/5 for its importance to the Objectivist canon. ...more

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Where the Crawdads Sing
by Delia Owens (Goodreads Author)

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This is interesting to rate. Narratively, Where the Crawdads Sing is strange, moving from what feels like a fictionalized memoir or romance with ruminations on variations of a naturalistic/materialistic worldview to a courtroom thriller. The writing ...more

Chendall Brooks rated a book liked it

The Catcher in the Rye
by J.D. Salinger

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I could go deeper into this novel and its themes, perhaps explaining why it might be considered a classic, but due to a general disinterest and lack of time, I will keep this review short.

The novel follows a teenager named Holden. He is expelled from I could go deeper into this novel and its themes, perhaps explaining why it might be considered a classic, but due to a general disinterest and lack of time, I will keep this review short.

The novel follows a teenager named Holden. He is expelled from his boarding school for bad behavior. After some conversations in which he mostly internally ridicules everyone else (and talks about literature), he receives some money from his grandma which he uses to run off and do what he wants. He visits and talks to girls from his past, attempts all sorts of wretched business in town, spends time in bars, and generally behaves as a delinquent before the novel closes in a sort of ambiguity.

Thematically, The Catcher in the Rye wrestles with the idea of the child, in this case Holden, distrusting adults. He views them with a certain disdain. Ironically, Holden himself is perhaps the most vindictive character in the novel who is least trustworthy. Most of the action of the story happens internally, Sallinger seeming to put an emphasis on the internal world of people, in particular tweens and teens. Holden is working out how to interact with a world he generally holds a disdain for, his plans often great fantasies of moving away, starting over. The book is most effective in commentating and narrating on the internal life and experience of the youth and their relationship to authorities in the culture, explicitly revealing the corollary between youth who thinks that adults are stupid only to find themselves making the same mistakes.

Sallinger writes from the mind of Holden by way of narrative realism, emphasizing the closeness to Holden's thoughts by narrating the story in his particular dialect and colloquialisms. I understand why he did this, but that doesn't make me like it any more. It reminds me of reading Twain. That is probably a complement, but personally, the strong presence of dialect, particularly of the 18th and 19th centuries grates on me.

I understand what Sallinger was trying to do, but it isn't necessarily my cup of tea. At some point I will probably read through it again for further study, but as of today, 3/5. ...more

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The Selected Canterbury Tales
by Geoffrey Chaucer

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Due to the immense workload I currently find myself under, this review will be short, although due to the influence and magnitude of the story, it probably deserves a fuller discussion than what I will provide here.

In short, Fischer's translation, if ...more

Chendall Brooks rated a book it was amazing

Ayn Rand and the World She Made
by Anne C. Heller

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Every year, I select one of the books that I read to be book of the year, and as of the writing of this review, this is the frontrunner. I was first introduced to Rand through Atlas Shrugged. For all my philosophical disagreement with the author, I l Every year, I select one of the books that I read to be book of the year, and as of the writing of this review, this is the frontrunner. I was first introduced to Rand through Atlas Shrugged. For all my philosophical disagreement with the author, I loved the writing and I appreciated the philosophical nature of the work. I went to read the rest of Rand's most famous books, not disappointed. It was only logical that I'd put myself to the task of better understanding the events that shaped the author of these most unique works of fiction. I looked around and settled on this one, and it did not disappoint. I chose Heller's specifically because it seemed to balance both sides of Rand's polarizing philosophy and character.

I have read some good biographies, my favorite prior to this one being Kai Bird's The Modern Prometheus, a bio of the life and work of Robert J. Oppenheimer. I am a different and more adept reader now than when I first read that bio, but Anne C. Heller's bio seems to me excellent in every way, surpassing even my highest expectations. She does the hard work of untangling the life of her subject, someone who was secretive, with a history cloaked behind the iron curtain and self-deceptions around the Objectivist community. This was by no means an easy task.

In the words of somebody from Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (whose name escapes me; the movie adaptation): She "has been thoroughly unriddled". Heller absolutely provides a full, complete, fair, and honest picture of Ayn Rand and her followers.

Heller's biography goes into great care and depth exploring the people surrounding Ayn Rand, how her most famous works came to be (and what they were about), the schisms rampant in her and Nathaniel Branden's movements, the movements founded by her ideas, and the particulars that make all of those interactions extremely human. She masterfully paints a picture of the movements associated with her, giving us not only a deep understanding of her life (and her psyche), but of Nathaniel and Barbara Branden, Leonard Piekoff, her husband Frank O'Connor, and many others that would become influential figures in political and economic movements. Heller, above all, gives you a sense of the facts. Rand certainly would not have appreciated the facts that Heller presented, but as an Objectivist, she should, because Heller does not represent Rand as either more or less than what she is, but exactly as she is. Heller stands back from making judgments or providing commentary on the personalities, letting those who knew Rand make those distinctions.

Where Heller would draw conclusions and make commentary would be in regard to Rand's philosophy and the point and plot of her books and essays, making the book eminently accessible to even the laymen (I, however, do recommend coming in with a basic understanding of Objectivist philosophy). One does not need to be an expert on Rand or Objectivism to learn a great deal. In fact, reading Heller's biography may be enough to grasp Rand and her philosophy better than most (among those with an interest in the author). Although the focus of the bio is on the people, she does a fantastic job of weaving in the philosophical purpose and point of Rand's novels, an essential aspect of any biography on Rand.

It is a biography of the highest quality. At no point while reading did I lose interest or get annoyed by either a lack of detail or too much extraneous ones. In fact, I said out loud upon realizing I was at the bio's last chapter, "Oh man, it's almost done?" Rand's life was fascinating. This biography gives you the grand narrative of her life, the fear and the anger, the deceptions and betrayals, and the philosophy and publishing, concluding with a picture both reverential and sad as she narrates Rand's final moments. The woman who praised the so-called indomitability of the human ego was perhaps the most broken person of all, giving us a complicated and important examination of human joy and purpose.

I cannot recommend this highly enough to those interested in Rand. I will likely be reading Barbara Branden's biography to get a more Objectivist perspective on the matter. 5/5. ...more

Chendall Brooks liked Michael Brooks's review of Tell Her Story: How Women Led, Taught, and Ministered in the Early Church:

"I read this book knowing that Gupta would probably take positions I may not agree with. But, I practice reading widely and critically for the following purposes:

1) For my own personal educational benefits.
2) To hear opposing views and better wrestle " Read more of this review »

Chendall Brooks rated a book liked it

The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy Those Extraor... by Mark Twain

The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy Those Extraordinary Twins
by Mark Twain

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Pudd'nhead Wilson is very Twain, I guess that's where I begin. As one of the realist writers, Twain always sought to emphasize writing in the dialect spoken and to depict reality as it was, and in this, Twain always uniquely succeeds.

Pudd'nhead Wilso ...more

Chendall Brooks rated a book really liked it

The Sun Also Rises
by Ernest Hemingway

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The Sun Also Rises is better than The Old Man and the Sea, by a longshot, first off. Hemingway says something here, and while his enigmatic style of writing, the iceberg theory (where much of the narrative goes unspoken), it provides the story with a The Sun Also Rises is better than The Old Man and the Sea, by a longshot, first off. Hemingway says something here, and while his enigmatic style of writing, the iceberg theory (where much of the narrative goes unspoken), it provides the story with a mystique that it otherwise wouldn't have. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this, much to my own surprise, because on the surface it doesn't appear that much is said, however the issues that The Sun Also Rises grapples with are similar to those we face today, 100 years later.

The Sun Also Rises follows the narrator, Jake Barnes, following a fictionalized account of a trip that Hemingway himself took in Europe. Jake is alongside friends, and for much of the narrative, it feels like following these friends on their vacation. The story is infused with relational drama, sports, drinking, gambling, and more, giving us an exposition of people searching. What are they searching for? They don't know. Maybe some sense of happiness, joy, or purpose?

The story frustrates the characters, demonstrating it's point by way of presenting an absence of purpose or defined conclusion from a narrative perspective, slipping story after story, no major ties and without any unifying goal. This reflects the characters themselves, drifting aimlessly from place to place, avoiding responsibility and grappling with the reality of living in a post-WWI world. The narrative is aimless because the characters reflect the Lost Generation--a term coined by Gertrude Stein to Hemingway following WWI. This lostness is cerebral and a reaction to a disenfranchisement people felt following their experiences in WWI. Hemingway reflected that with his own narrative, describing a hedonistic lifestyle that many employed to cope with the losses, both esoteric and literal.

The characters reflect this idea. These characters, between 30 and 40 years old, should be in the most ordered and purpose driven portion of their lives, yet they exist, aimless and purposeless, driving towards some vague sense of fulfillment in the eternal present.

Jake Barnes feels the best adjusted, however he is defined by physical scars that the narrative implies as robbing him of his future and his love. Brett sabotages her own relationships, returning once again to a wicked lifestyle of hedonism, moving from person to person, place to place, aimlessly. Mike turns to alcohol and gambling as a means to cope. Bill does much the same, although Bill appears to be the most virtuous character in the entire narrative. In sum, Hemingway is addressing a general sense of the lostness of himself and his readers, highlighting the self-sabotage and dangerous coping mechanisms of his time.

That pulls us back into 2026. The crisis of lostness seems to be returning, albeit for entirely different reasons and with a different set of responses. The Sun Also Rises is contemporary to the modern American because there is a general sense of lostness that appears to be approaching those of the younger generation. In Hemingway, it's a response to their future being robbed from them, but for us it's a search for meaning that seems to be lost within the entertainment driven culture and lifestyle of the 21st century. There is little enthusiasm for the future; there is little direction for many today. These characters ignore the greater questions and underlying needs they have; instead they drink, they gamble, they sleep around. I worry that the social media driven world that we live in full of cheap entertainment, self-isolation, and mindless comfort will lead to its own lost generation with nowhere to anchor themselves to nor any goal to aspire to.

There are answers to this question for those willing to look. ...more

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