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Built
Built: The Hidden Stories Behind our Structures | Roma Agrawal
9 posts | 3 read | 6 to read
The wonders of engineering revealed--by the inspirational female engineer behind The Shard, Western Europe's tallest building. While our cities are full of incredible engineering feats, most of us live with little idea of what goes into creating the built environment, let alone how a new building goes up, what it is constructed upon, or how it remains standing. In Built, star structural engineer Roma Agrawal explains how construction has evolved from the mud huts of our ancestors to skyscrapers of steel that reach into the sky. She unearths how humans have tunneled through solid mountains; how we've walked across the widest of rivers, and tamed nature's precious water resources. She tells vivid tales of the visionaries who created the groundbreaking materials used to build the Pantheon and the Eiffel Tower; and explains how careful engineering can minimize tragedies like the collapse of the Quebec Bridge. Interweaving science, history, illustrations, and personal stories, Built offers a fascinating window into a subject that makes up the foundation of our everyday lives.
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Faranae
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Alright, it's November, so it looks like only half my #URC2023 is going to be queer romance. Meanwhile, I went back to my past unassigned reads and found 4 books that fit prompts - the one not included here is The Story of My Life by Helen Keller for a blind author.

I'll actually be reading Lady Susan a second time later this month for my read-along Twitch stream.

willaful I've never actually read Lady Susan, IIRC.

I'm annoyed at myself because I had a queer romance for the rescue prompt, with a paramedic, but the second LI is a cop. D'oh.
12mo
Faranae @willaful Oh the “no cops“ rule is just that cops don't count as rescue personnel for the prompt, not that they can't appear at all.

And most people skip Lady Susan. It's one of her juvenilia that she never reworked and wasn't published until decades after she died. It's delightful but it's not something you can mine for social commentary and older Austen was a tad more conservative in her morals than this book.
12mo
willaful Yeah, I never got much into her juvenalia.

Thanks for the allow! One less prompt to worry about. But you will absolutely *hate* the book.
12mo
Faranae @willaful 😂 glad to know I will have good fodder for the blog next year then! 12mo
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shanaqui
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Pickpick

And done! I didn't get into it at first, and then I got to the chapter about the cathedral in Mexico City and that really piqued my attention. Agrawal does explain things well!

#BookSpinBingo progress, slow and steady. I'm currently reading Hidden Hands, The Wood for the Trees, Dreadful Company, Bitter and Ancillary Mercy, so I'm a bit all over the shop... but it's all what I planned.

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shanaqui

Spent a good part of my lunch break infodumping at my wife about the subsidence in Mexico City and how it affected the cathedral there, because that's what I just read about.

That's how you can tell I'm enjoying a book! (And it's okay, my wife doesn't mind.)

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Coffeymuse
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My January #bookspin was a bail. I wanted to like it but alas this is not my cup of tea.
If you have a functioning understanding of math, geometry, and physics this will make more sense. However, I failed those classes in high school (many moons ago).
Glad I tried the book and glad to have it off the TBR.
@TheAromaofBooks

TheAromaofBooks Always sad when a book doesn't work out... but a good feeling to get it off the list!! 4y
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Coffeymuse
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My probably-too-ambitious reading schedule for the week. We shall see what I can get read.
#weeklyreport
@cinfhen

Cinfhen Nothing wrong with ambition 😂🙌🏻Happy reading 4y
6 likes1 comment
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Coffeymuse
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This weeks #bookreport. Managed to read three smaller books and start on the tagged book. All three were solid reads; can't wait till after work to delve into Built.

@Cinfhen

Cinfhen I really like Amanda Lovelace‘s poetry collections 4y
CBee My oldest and I are currently reading The Phantom Tollbooth 🙂 4y
Coffeymuse @Cinfhen I have two more and I'm caught up. Been slowly reading them and expect to get caught up this year. 4y
Coffeymuse @CBee It was so good-don't know how I missed this when I was a kid. Hope your oldest enjoys! 4y
CBee @Coffeymuse I never read it as a kid either, and it would‘ve been right up my alley! 4y
8 likes5 comments
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rockpools
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Roma Agrawal is one of the of structural engineers who worked on the Shard. She also does a lot of outreach work to encourage young women into engineering. In this book, she writes about #buildingamystery, how buildings are put up, designed to withstand wind and earthquakes, modern and through history, from the Eiffel Tower to Brooklyn Bridge. #timbittunes

rockpools P.S. I couldn‘t decide which cover I liked better. 6y
TrishB Sounds cool 👍🏻 6y
Cinfhen Nice choice 🙌🏻💕fascinating 6y
Itchyfeetreader Fun choice and interesting sounding book 6y
TheKidUpstairs This looks fascinating. Great choice! 6y
61 likes2 stack adds5 comments
review
mr_annie
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Pickpick

Engineering-lite for the complete novice, Agrawal takes complex concepts and reduces them to simple analogies (often involving rubber bands). Her love of built structures shines through, showing human history in a different light. The tone is humorous and includes just enough personal anecdotes to give a sense of the author. I learnt a lot and will now look at the buildings around me in a different way!

5 likes2 stack adds
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DennisJacobRosenfeld
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I‘ve always been interested in architecture. So I couldn‘t help but be interested when I found this. The book is planned for February 2018 release.