God Gifted

Title: Out of the Depths

Author: Kenneth E. Kovacs

Pages: 163

Year: 2016

Publisher: Parson’s Porch Books

Kenneth E. Kovacs, in Out of the Depths, a collection of sermons and essays, interweaves theology and depth psychology with skill and grace. His writing style is far from pretentious - or so erudite that the average reader would yawn with boredom. He engages not only the head but the heart.

His personal anecdotes are endearing and likely to resonate with those who’ve ever struggled to discover their own gifts and calls. In his chapter, “God Gifted” (pages 62-66) Kenneth remembers that as a boy he disliked the term “gifted and talented.” His friends were chosen for the program at school, which made him feel like an outsider looking in.

Not being ‘chosen’ impacted his self-worth (and most likely influenced his vocation as Calvinist minister) and caused him to view himself as inferior, inadequate, and unworthy to be included in the special treatment and the enrichment classes. He thought what he had to offer had little or no value.

Thus, the seeds of envy were planted within him, which caused him to push himself all the harder. “I’ll show them!” He desperately wanted to be counted worthy in his teachers’ eyes, but in slaving away to appease the system’s demands, he hid his innate gifts and God-given talents, and didn’t rediscover them again until years later as an adult.

Today Kenneth is using his writing gift and speaking talent to bless countless souls. He pastors a Presbyterian Church in Maryland, has served congregations in Scotland and led pilgrimages there and in Italy, Turkey, Greece, Switzerland, and France.

#OutOfTheDepthsSpeakeasy

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255. 

The Past is Never Dead

Title: The Coffins

Author: Deborah Dunn

Year: 2017

Pages: 241

Deborah Dunn, in her new novel, The Coffins, takes the reader back and forth in time, from 1587 when Eleanor anticipates becoming Queen of the New Eden and mother of Virginia, to 2015, where her protagonist, Andrea Warren, returns to North Carolina on a mission to solve the mystery of her father’s alleged suicide - his death having occurred while he was searching for the coffins of Beechland.

In her quest for truth, Andrea begins seeing clear visions of scenes from the 1500s: nature as untouched and pure as it was back in the day… she sees herself in deerskin clothes and shell necklace, hair woven and secured by bones and combs of fish skeleton as she paddles a canoe downstream - or is this Virginia Dare she is seeing? It’s nothing strange for Andrea to find herself in two simultaneous worlds:  both in the New World and in the modern age of smart phones and Siri.

Throughout the story, whole scenes materialize before her eyes, as if she’s watching a movie. In these visions she sees murders: While peering into the water at Old Ferry Landing she feels her father’s presence, hears a single shot, smells gun smoke, and hears the thud of a body falling to the ground… She witnesses Willie tossed into Columbia Creek “like yesterday’s fish guts”… she sees a nursing home where a needle is sliding into Aunt Polly’s veins… Dereck holding an assault rifle, starving refugees, innocents crying in agony and disbelief…

Deborah Dunn’s fictional dream takes the reader on a tour through North Carolina’s coastal districts adorned with cypress trees and Spanish moss, awash with choppy waves and cawing seagulls, warm sunshine, dark clouds, deep woods, and into a world where past and present intersect. In The Coffins we see at play the truth of William Faulkner’s words: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past. All of us labor in webs spun long before we were born.”

For more info on the author or to order visit her website:

A Manifesto for Creative Souls

Title: Blessed Are The Weird

Author: Jacob Nordby

Pages: 183

Year: 2016

Publisher:  Manifesto Publishing

Blessed are the Weird is Jacob Nordby’s manifesto for creative souls, for those who’ve always known they were different. The rare birds.  The eccentrics.

Those who march to the beat of their own heart. Those who aren’t apt to play the reindeer games - and might be sent to the Island of Misfits were they toys.

But they now have a place where they can stand out and fit in at the same time.  

You might belong in Jacob’s ”Blessed Weird Tribe” if you fall into any of the following categories:

The book is an expansion of Jacob’s poem that became a viral phenomenon. It’s a call to live a more soulful existence, follow your unique call, and be a part of the new renaissance.

He offers a bold new definition of success in the modern era:

 “The only success now is living and creating a work-of-art life: unique, rich with meaning, naked of anything we don’t care about, and ruthless about carving out something absolutely real from a world that has gorged itself on fakeness and become critically ill from it. The only failure now is pulling back from that quest because of fear.” 

Jacob Nordby is a gifted writer who knows how to engage his readers. He is author of Divine Arsonist – A Tale of Awakening, and Blessed Are the Weird – A Manifesto for Creatives.  His work has been featured in compilation books with Bernie Siegal, James Van Praagh, Lisa McCourt, Jack Canfield, and others.  He is founder and teacher of Creative UnBootcamp – A Course for Writers… and those who want to be.

For more information on the author, or to purchase the book, visit here.  

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

#BATWSpeakEasy 

The Remnant

Title: The Remnant

Author: Monte Wolverton

Pages: 272

Year: 2016

Publisher: Plain Truth Ministries Worldwide

The apocalypse, or the Final War of 2062, has come and gone, leaving in its wake mass devastation and the death of ninety percent of the world’s population.  Consequently, the World Federation seizes total control and bans all religion, Bibles, and sacred literature. Those who won’t renounce their religion are consigned to labor camps. 

In the year 2131, Grant, his small family, and a handful of others, escape from their work camp through an underground tunnel and venture out into the “Wilderness” in search of a community of likeminded believers. On their pilgrimage they meet their share of wackos and founders of bizarre cults from whom the team has the good sense to flee. 

The Remnant is a page-turner, reminiscent of The Road, The book of Eli and The Walking Dead – only with raptors instead of zombies.  If you enjoy science fiction set in a dystopian society - with scattered doses of comic relief - conversations on philosophical theory, religion and spiritually, be sure to check this one out. The only drawback that I could find is that the author could have used a good editor.  

Monte Wolverine is an author, minister, and syndicated cartoonist. 

For more information visit here:  

Or go to Amazon:

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author and/or publisher through the Speakeasy blogging book review network. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.

#SpeakEasytheRemnant