The Breakers

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Gotta find the silver lining of how the pandemic has catalyzed some good things in addition to the bad! THE BREAKER isn't perfect. The book's initial scene seemed to go on for a bit too long and almost lost me. But by the time I was a third of the way through the story, I couldn’t stop reading. My other issue is that Peter, ironically enough, was the least interesting of the three protagonists. He seemed to be along for the ride with Lewis rather than the other way around. I simply have no words to express how much I loved this amazing and historically recorded book. Walter Isaacson! Sir, you have such a diverse taste in science, arts and literature. I just finished reading Murder at the Breakers by Alyssa Maxwell. It is the first book in the Gilded Newport Mystery series. Murder at the Breakers is an historical cozy mystery. It is August of 1895 in Newport, Rhode Island. Emmaline “Emma” Cross lives at Gull Manor which she inherited from her Great Aunt Sadie. Emma also writes stories on society events for the Newport Observer. Emma is a cousin to Cornelius Vanderbilt (a poor relations, but still a relation). Emma is awakened early one morning by her half-brother Brady (Stuart Braden Gale IV). Emma and Brady share a father, but have a different mother. Brady asks Emma not to tell anyone she has seen him and could she make sure that Uncle Cornelius stays downstairs from 11:45 to midnight at the ball at The Breakers. Brady states he is going to make something right! Emma is used to getting her brother out of scrapes. When Neily (Cornelius Vanderbilt II) arrives asking for Brady, Emma states she does not know where he is at that exact moment (which is true since he had left the attic). The sci fi portion threw me though. There’s a twist that I did enjoy reading, but I needed a little more. Overall it was good, but not fabulous.

When Peter Ash interrupts a crime in progress, he's set on a collision course with dangerous enemies and terrifying technology. The world building in this book was great. The author give you just enough detail to paint the world in your mind with-ought overdoing it! The characterization of each individual was on point. I felt like I knew them all personally. I hope this is not a spoiler, however, I do not like to fall in love with a character just to have to say goodbye to them unexpectedly. As RNA discoveries continued to flourish, so did the significance and necessity such findings would have in the future of vaccines. Spanish Molecular Biologist Francis Mojica discovered palindrome-like, repeating segments of DNA, in the 90s, and ended up creating the defining acronym - CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats), which was excepted on November 21, 2001 as the appropriate moniker.The second half of the book contains a lengthy discussion of morals and ethics, speculation on the future of gene editing, and an account on the scientific community's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, there's a short chapter on the social demise of James D. Watson of double helix fame. Early in this book Watson's book, The Double Helix is described as having been an inspiration to Doudna as a young girl to study science. But in Watson's later years he became an embarrassment to the scientific community.

In all fairness to this book, it took me longer to read because I was travelling less, working more, and video-gaming in between. So that left less time for reading. That said... it still took me awhile to really get into this book. At first I thought it was going to be about an apocalyptic world, wiped out after a flu pandemic. Then the aliens showed up. And it all kind of went down the crap-shoot after that.Then there was the story - a viral plague, sort of like THE STAND, but told from the point of view of very different characters - urban characters. Where did this virus come from? How was the government reacting? How do the handful of survivors react? I thought this stuff was very well done. The secondary characters are also well drawn. None of them rely solely on the stereotypes of Gilded Age personalities. The Vanderbilts appear as they really were. I liked getting to know them better, especially Gertrude, who was is largely glossed over on the museum tour (aside from her bedroom). I also liked getting to know young Gladys because she is featured in the audio tour of the museum. I don't know much about the younger boys and I was interested in getting to know them too. The fictional secondary characters include Brady, Emma's love interest, her outspoken Nanny and maid Katie, among others from both upstairs and downstairs. The development of CRISPR and the race to create vaccines for coronavirus will hasten our transition to the next great innovation revolution. The past half-century has been a digital age, based on the microchip, computer, and internet. Now we are entering a life-science revolution. Children who study digital coding will be joined by those who study genetic code. Until 2020, only five women, beginning with Marie Curie in 1911, had won a Nobel for chemistry. But 2020 was the year it went to two women, Jennifer Doudna and French colleague Emmanuelle Charpentier, for the development of CRISPR, a gene editing technology. I read a lot in studying for sermons, preparing series, and even personal growth. Even the 'break' books I choose usually are historic in nature and, thus, beneficial. Once in a while, though, I like to read a work of fiction just for entertainment purposes. The genre that I most often choose for that purpose is dystopian fiction. Because these books fit into that category, and were free on my Kindle, I decided to give them a shot.