Finished: J. Kellerman’s “The Murderer’s Daughter”

I haven’t read a Jonathan Kellerman novel in quite some time for no other reason than getting caught up in other stuff. The Murderer’s Daughter is a stand-alone, with no Alex Delaware, Kellerman’s most famous character.

A brilliant, deeply dedicated psychologist, Grace Blades has a gift for treating troubled souls and tormented psyches—perhaps because she bears her own invisible scars: Only five years old when she witnessed her parents’ deaths in a bloody murder-suicide, Grace took refuge in her fierce intellect and found comfort in the loving couple who adopted her. But even as an adult with an accomplished professional life, Grace still has a dark, secret side. When her two worlds shockingly converge, Grace’s harrowing past returns with a vengeance.

I liked it a lot. I gave it a 7- on the Haugenomter, while Amazonians a 3.8 of five.

Kellerman is a psychologist himself, thus spins very believable psychological stories. His main character here, Grace, is a femme fatale with issues of her own. It’s dark, murderous, sexy – all the things I like.

One thing I personally like about Kellerman is his writing diversity (unlike say James Patterson). In addition to his psychological thrillers, he’s also written non-fiction psychology books, a book on vintage guitars and children’s books.  He is a clinical professor of pediatrics and still manages to kick out a novel a year. Pretty impressive dude. No one-trick pony.

I’ve liked every Kellerman book I’ve read and need to make it a point to get better caught up in a few others that have slipped past me.

Wednesday BS around SD

No better place to raise kids than SD (Meade County Times-Tribune)

"Everyone sat at the table until everyone was done. They had to ask to leave the table. I never let them eat with their caps on,"

Montague a fourth-generation rancher (Meade County Times-Tribune)

"Being a mom is the most important job in the world. When it's all said and done, my kids are what I have to look back on and say, 'I did this.’”

Ernest Roth answered the call for WWI (Edgemont Herald Tribune)

“The rank and file of the fellows were quite unhappy with the machine gun assignment as rumor had it that these units were always the first to be ordered into the front lines of combat in actual battle and were consequently referred to as ‘Suicide squads.’”

Acting as an advocate for FFA (Brandon Valley Challenger)

“You maintain a positive outlook and advocate for FFA. You tell people how fun it is and try to get people into it. I’m really passionate, and I decided to go for it. It’s going to be a fun year.”

Local mother Florence Munger famous for running Ritz Café (De Smet News)

“I was spoiled because I would go in and eat whatever they served for the day,” Craig admitted. His favorite meals that his mom made were round steak slow-cooked in tomato sauce and fried chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy.

Finished: James Patterson’s ‘Cross the Line’

I’ve pretty much abandoned new James Patterson books and his host of co-authors, with one exception. I still read the Alex Cross novels. But even they are getting a little stale.

Hey, gotta give it to Patterson, he figured out a formula, stuck with it and it’s worked millions of times over for him. Short sentences, short chapters, keep it moving. But I have to think, especially after you’ve made more money than God, that you’d want to try something new. Apparently not. Dance with the girl who brung ya, I guess.

So Cross the Line is a year old, as I don’t exactly rush to the newest Pattertson stuff. And it was okay.

After shots pierce the tranquil nighttime calm of Rock Creek Park, a man is dead: what looks at first like road rage might be something much more sinister. But Alex has only just begun asking questions when he's called across town to investigate a new murder, one that hits close to home: Washington's own chief of detectives. And Alex's former boss, beloved mentor of Alex's wife, Bree. 

Now there's a killer on the loose, a long list of possible suspects, a city in panic, and nobody in charge of the besieged police force. Until Bree gets tapped for the job.

Amazonians seem to have a higher opinion of it than I do, a 4.4 out of 5, but so be it. It’s a 6 on the 10-point Haugenometer. Goodreaders a 4 of 5, and Barnes & Snobles 3.8 of 5.

Now that it’s done I can rest with the satisfaction that I can go another year or two without have to read another Patterson novel.

Snowball bush (with a bonus Huckleberry) in garden

Chives (with a bonus bee) along my walking path

Society is failing our boys

David French is fast becoming one of my favorite writers. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidAFrench

Here he nails it: Our culture is unlearning masculinity, and boys are paying a steep price.

He makes many great points, including these two:

Make no mistake, if these numbers showed an equivalent (and increasing) educational gender gap running in the opposite direction, the feminist Left would declare a cultural emergency. Indeed, it has declared a cultural emergency in spite of the dominant educational performance of women.

And ...

It is important to see and know that throughout that young man’s life, his dad wasn’t just nurturing him, he was also challenging him — pushing him to be stronger mentally, physically, and emotionally. To that end, it’s time to remember that strength is a virtue, rightly channeled aggression creates and preserves civilization itself, and there is nothing at all inherently toxic about masculinity. 

Tuesday BS around SD

Terry Cousins to Retire from Veterans Service Office (Winner Advocate)

His wife, Marlene, wanted to move back to South Dakota and specifically the Gregory area where she had lots of relatives.  Cousins jokes when he told Marlene “Don’t you remember how cold the winters were in South Dakota.”  Marlene added: “But they have changed.”

Montague a fourth-generation rancher (Meade County Times-Tribune)

"Being a mom is the most important job in the world. When it's all said and done, my kids are what I have to look back on and say, 'I did this,'" says Lawonza (Baker) Montague, 38, New Underwood rancher and mother of two.

Wednesday BS around SD

Making a difference (Brandon Valley Challenger)

“(The Relay for Life) is one I can’t give up because it affects so many people,” Feltman said. “It just makes me feel like my mom would be proud of me, that we’re not just letting her die in vain.”

Building on a successful business model (Dell Rapids Tribune)

“It was so slow that I thought maybe if we had a retail store, it would give us more credibility online,” she said. “So, then we started as an occasional store on main street. We were just open one weekend a month, and then we got busy enough to where we started opening every day.”

Sources say, an addendum

On a side note, I am occasionally asked where I get my news. For starters I get none of it from television. I seldom watch local news, never watch network news (though I do have Fox Business on mute in my office throughout the day) and I don’t do any of the late-night talk shows. (And don’t get me started on newspapers doing stories now on what was on Saturday Night Live the night before.) I don’t subscribe to any newspapers, but do read some we get at work. I find the Black Hills Pioneer to be my favorite.

Much of my news is gained via local and national reporters I follow on Twitter. Otherwise, it’s on websites.

My 2 cents recommends thehill.com for any news regarding legislation or events going on in D.C. I know a bit about that stuff and don’t really sense a political leaning there. Pretty straight forward reporting. I don’t waste my time with Politico.

My first-thing-in-the-morning routine on my Kindle usually goes in this order, after Twitter:
drudgereport.com (latest world and national news)

yahoo.com/baseball/fantasy (to see how my SDPheasants team is faring)

aceofspades.mu.nu (a snarky, sometimes profane, hodge-podge of news from politics to art to books and gardening)

twinsdaily.com (for major league features and minor league updates on the Twins)

powerlineblog.com (some conservative attorneys in Minneapolis with updates on national and Minnesota politics as well as Miss Universe reports, and one of the guys is from Watertown)

realclearbooks.com (daily compilation of book news from around the world)

tmz.com (I wash it all down with my daily dose of what the Kardashians and my second wife Jennifer Aniston were up to the night before)

Shake it all around and this is what you get.

'Sources say' this is the best website in the world

It’s not a new thing but it is an increasingly more common thing: “Sources say.”

Chalk it up to entertainment news or internet-influence but I notice a lot more anonymous sources being used in news stories than ever before. “Sources say” Justin Bieber is dating Venus Williams or “sources say” the President spilled ketchup on his tie today.

It used to be, at least back in my days in the newspaper biz, that anonymous sources were rarely used and if they were they needed to be double-sourced by another. Some of it today, I believe, is also the rush to be the first to get the news. So “sources say” ten people were killed by two masked gun wielding assault rifles, eventually becomes four people shot by one man with a pistol. Seems it’s usually best not to repeat the particulars of any breaking news story you hear. Give it some time to stew, for more sources to reaffirm the story.

I recall using an anonymous source once in my career. That was from a closed-door meeting among teachers and from a teacher I knew and trusted. And I had no other way of getting that news. Now, it seems when there are other ways the reporters seldom wait or work their way to get the facts.

I even saw our local paper use an anonymous website comment to a news story in a follow-up story. No name, no nothing.

But, then again, this is the same paper that has a very popular feature in its news section (not on the opinion page) called “2 Cents.” That allows people to write in anonymous comments complaining about life, neighbors and politicians. The paper does no fact checking on the comments, just prints them willy nilly.

It’s amazing to me. I formerly edited four different newspapers and if I’d walked into the bosses and suggested “hey, let’s run anonymous opinions and unchecked comments on our news page,” they would’ve hung me up by my toes after firing me.

To make it worse, this is probably the most read part of the paper, which would make me nervous as a publisher that the most popular thing in your paper isn’t written by your own reporters.

It’s like they don’t realize that anonymous sources can have agendas, or they can be drunk, or they can be uninformed. That’s why you name sources, so readers can make that determination. If “Mark Haugen” says something, people can say they never heard of me, they can say “oh, he’s the smartest man I know, so I better believe him” or they can say, “oh, that idiot is back on the sauce.” But anonymous sources don’t allow the readers to make that judgement, instead relying on the veracity of the publication doing the anonymous sourcing, and not many of them are shooting off the charts right now.

But, I get it. I’m a dinosaur. Newspapers aren’t just papers anymore. Unfortunately, they aren’t just news anymore either.

Tuesday BS around SD

Deacon Harold Condon is named Distinguished Alumnus (Central Dakota Times)

“I learned a lot at St. Joseph’s Indian School,” he said. “But it was the spirituality, the faith I learned that gave me the strength to get through many things in my life. I served in the Vietnam War.
I watched my son serve two tours in the Middle East. I lost a son to cancer.
Through these times, it was my strength of faith that brought me through.”

Yankton’s Geigle ‘Addicted’ To Archery (Yankton P&D)

“When I first started, I thought I’d come in here and have fun, and not compete,” she said. “And we just ended up getting into it. It gets addicted and you want to do more and more.”

Sunday BS around SD

St. Patrick’s Church, Wall, Turns 100 (Penn. Co. Courant)

In April 1917, Reverend John Connolly became the region’s first resident pastor. He was responsible for parishioners in Wall, Quinn, Wasta and New Underwood. That year, the Wall parish purchased the unused Congregational Church building for $1,000, and a rectory for $1,300. The loans were paid off in four years. Over those years, and a few more, Wall  grew to became the only mission under Connolly.

Sturgis student prepares for Navy (Meade Co. Times)

"It gets difficult at times, but you have to set your priorities. Obviously, school is the most important thing in my life right now because if I don't graduate then I can't do any of this Navy stuff," he said.

Friday BS around SD

Hill City reporter taking a hike (Prevailer News)

I’m about to begin a journey that I’ve had on my bucket list for many years now. I’m going to start on the Mexican border in California and hopefully not stop until I reach Canada. I’m going to hike the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail (PCT).

Worthing teacher retires after 30 years (Lennox Independent)

This May Worthing Elementary’s second grade teacher, Pat Hoffman, will bid her last second grade class goodbye. “I get pretty attached. I always cry the last day of school,” she said.

SD man has scientists rethinking old Americans

In case you missed it, and I don’t know how you could have, a fossil discovered in San Diego has yielded potentially groundbreaking evidence suggesting that North America had human inhabitants more than 100,000 years earlier than previously thought.

It turns out that the lead author of the paper published in Nature announcing this discovery is the director of research at the Center for American Paleolithic Research, based in Hot Springs, SD.  His name is Steven R. Holen.

Holen’s peer-reviewed article in Nature is available at this link.

A separate (dumbed down for English majors) news article in Nature is here: Controversial study claims humans reached Americas 100,000 years earlier than thought

Their contention, if correct, would force a dramatic rethink of when and how the Americas were first settled — and who by. Most scientists subscribe to the view that Homo sapiens arrived in North America less than 20,000 years ago. The latest study raises the possibility that another hominin species, such as Neanderthals or a group known as Denisovans, somehow made it from Asia to North America before that and flourished.

“It’s such an amazing find and — if it’s genuine — it’s a game-changer. It really does shift the ground completely,” says John McNabb, a Palaeolithic archaeologist at the University of Southampton, UK. “I suspect there will be a lot of reaction to the paper, and most of it is not going to be acceptance.”

Thursday BS around SD

Local author to hold book launch party (Tea Weekly)

The time he has put in has paid off, as next weekend Wengert will host a book launch party for his two novels, Caveat Ties and Soul Shocked, that have recently been published. Wengert always aspired to be a writer for his career. He said, “In high school there were suggestions that I pursue a more realistic career.”

Whites looking to pass weather-watching baton in Edgemont (Herald Tribune)

The Whites have owned The Gun Vault since 2012, services provided are Gunsmithing, the sell of guns and ammo, etc. The Whites also own, Double Tap which was purchased in April of 2014 to help boost the local economy and provide a place of gathering. Double Tap offers both a firearm and an archery simulator; an archery range; self defense, gun, and survival classes; also the building can be rented out for different events ranging from birthday parties to quilting retreats.

BS around SD ...

Some of the best and most interesting news stories appear in newspapers most people don't read. Since I still have the love of weekly newspapers running through my veins, I'm going to try to be diligent in bringing some of those articles to you first thing in the morning. I'll throw in some interesting stories from the dailies too.

Mostly I'll stick to featurish type stories and leave the boring policy and politics stuff to other places that want to be boring.

I've cleverly titled these segments "BS around SD" with the "BS" standing for "best stories" and don't let anyone else tell you otherwise.

So let's start with a very interesting story from the Murdo Coyote and a feel-gooder from the Moody County Enterprise in Flandreau.


Tell Your Story … Bill Valburg (Murdo Coyote)

You may not have guessed ranching and flying go hand in hand but Valburg shares that his ‘49 Super Cub has been the best piece of machinery ever used on the family ranch. Valburg will celebrate his 90th birthday next January and will also be celebrating 70 years of braving the sky. Jones County is home to the Valburg family ranch but one county over is where the story first took flight.

Flandreau company donates 900 dozen eggs (Moody County Enterprise)

For every free throw made in Frost Arena by both the men’s and women’s basketball teams, Dakota Layers donated a dozen eggs. This year, 632 free throws were made and the company increased their total donation to 900 dozen or 10,800 eggs. That amount of eggs will feed approximately 900 families.

I have the hard-boiled fever ...

Got back on the noir crime novel train and knocked off Queenpin by Megan Abbot and One Fearful Yellow Eye by John D. MacDonald.

Queenpin rocked the old-school Vegas vibe and received the illustrious Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original as well as the Barry Award for the same. It was published in 2007. It is also unique in this hard-boiled crime genre as the protagonist is female.

A young woman hired to keep the books at a down-at-heel nightclub is taken under the wing of the infamous Gloria Denton, a mob luminary who reigned during the Golden Era of Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano.

This was my first roll in the hay with Abbot, who has a couple other novels out there. I’ll definitely be picking them up.Goodreaders give it 3.8 out of 5. The Haugenomter hit 7 out of 10 with this one.

A couple quotes from the book:

“Because she was solid gold, fourteen-carat, barely burnished despite twenty years of hard molling. But beneath it, I knew, beneath that gold and stardust, she was all grit and sharp teeth gnashing, head twisting, talons out, tearing flesh. She was all open mouth, tunneling into an awful nothing.” 

“You have to decide who you are, little girl, she told me once. Once you know that, everyone else will too.”

One Fearful Yellow Eye is the eighth novel in the Travis McGee series. I'm reading them out of order which doesn't seem to be a problem of continuity with the novels but is wreaking havoc with my OCD. This book was published in 1966.

The plot revolves around McGee's attempts to aid his longtime friend Glory Doyle in her quest to uncover the truth about her late husband and the blackmail which made over half a million dollars of his fortune disappear. It is largely set in Chicago, rather than the usual McGee haunt of Florida.

It boasts one of the higher ratings I’ve ever seen on Goodreads, a 4.1. I didn’t go that high with it, actually enjoyed Queenpin more, but a 6+ isn’t chicken feed either.

How to you extort $600,000 from a dying man? Someone had done it very quietly and skilfully to the husband of Travis McGee's ex-girlfriend. McGee flies to Chicago to help untangle the mess and discovers that although Dr. Fortner Geis had led an exemplary life, there were those who'd take advantage of one "indiscretion" and bring down the whole family. McGee also discovers he likes a few members of the family far too much to let that happen.

A couple quotes from the book:

“Every day, no matter how you fight it, you learn a little more about yourself, and all most of it does is teach humility.” 

“If there was one sunset every twenty years, how would people react to them? If there were ten seashells in all the world, what would they be worth? If people could make love just once a year, how carefully would they pick their mates?” 

Finished: MacDonald's 'A Man of Affairs'

A Man of Affairs by John D. MacDonald was an odd little book I enjoyed quite a bit.

I didn’t find it to be hardboiled fiction (certainly wasn’t a detective novel). It was more like a 1960s (?) business thriller set on a private island in the Bahamas. There were some affairs, a lot of drink, some fist-fights and murders, all centered around the takeover of a business by a playboy titan of industry.

Sam Glidden owed all his success to the opportunities he'd received from Thomas McGann, president of the Harrison Corporation. But now McGann was dead, and Mike Dean, a wildly flamboyant business speculator, was looking to add the Harrison Corporation to his long list of conquests. McGann's spoiled offspring, Tommy and Louise, saw the chance to make instant big bucks by selling out their shares. But Sam Glidden couldn't stand to see everything he'd worked for gobbled up by a barracuda like Mike Dean. So he wangled an invitation to the sand-and-surf soiree Dean planned for Louise and Tommy in the Bahamas ...

Amazonians seemed to like it alright, giving it a 4 of 5 stars. Goodreaders slightly less at 3.8. The Haugenometer settled at a 6 of 10.

If you don’t check out this book, you should check out something by John D. MacDonald. The dude sold over 70 million books in his day so he must’ve been doing something right.

Finished: Chaput's 'Strangers in a Strange Land'

After reading Archbishop Charles Chaput’s fabulous “Render unto Caesar,” I had high hopes for his latest book “Strangers in a Strange Land.” The bar was set high, as RUC was one of my favorite books. So it’s not totally surprising that SIASL didn’t meet expectations.

It was still good and I ended up with a well-marked up copy by the time I was finished, generally a good sign of what I consider interesting or thoughtful points. Yet this book seemed more term-paperish. Less original thought by Chaput and more use of citations. Obviously, a lot of Bible quotes, but many references to philosophers, both famous and obscure.

It was also kind of depressing. He’s pretty down on society right now and not particularly hopeful that Christians will pull us out of this funk any time soon. The message to me was more: Hunker down, do what you can within your little world, and cross your fingers because we are “strangers in a strange land” right now.

Amazon recaps the book:

America today is different in kind, not just in degree, from the past. And this new reality is unlikely to be reversed. The reasons include, but aren't limited to, economic changes that widen the gulf between rich and poor; problems in the content and execution of the education system; the decline of traditional religious belief among young people; the shift from organized religion among adults to unbelief or individualized spiritualities; changes in legal theory and erosion in respect for civil and natural law; significant demographic shifts; profound new patterns in sexual behavior and identity; the growth of federal power and its disregard for religious rights; the growing isolation and elitism of the leadership classes; and the decline of a sustaining sense of family and community.

It seemed almost a fitting book to read during Lent, which in and of itself is a somber, reflective season leading up to the Resurrection.

Here’s a good interview with Chaput by Kathryn Jean Lopez.

In it he says:

The book talks about the challenges we now face as American Christians — and yes, they’re serious — because if we’re not willing to face and understand our real circumstances, we can’t begin to change them. But the whole point of writing Strangers was to lead people through those challenges to claim the joy and hope of a life in Jesus Christ. If the book is about anything, it’s about why we can trust in God’s love for us.

The better that we live as Christians, the more others will discover Jesus Christ. That’s the only way to renew or convert a culture over time.

And I’d be remiss not mentioning that Chaput is former Bishop of Rapid City. Check out his interesting Wiki page.

*** This is an interesting story about 1,600 people going missing in our national parks.

When 18-year-old Joe Keller vanished from a dude ranch in Colorado's Rio Grande National Forest, he joined the ranks of those missing on public land. No official tally exists, but their numbers are growing. And when an initial search turns up nothing, who'll keep looking?