"As the owner of Miracle Books, Nora Pennington figures all the wet weather this spring is at least good for business. The local inns are packed with stranded travelers, and among them Nora finds both new customers and a new friend, the sixty-something Sheldon, who starts helping out at the store. Since a little rain never hurt anyone, Nora rides her bike over to the flea market one sodden day and buys a bowl from Danny, a Cherokee potter. It'll make...

When a structure fails, the fallout can be frightening, disruptive, and even deadly. And yet, these disasters also teach us valuable lessons about the possibilities of engineering--and how to make our future projects safer. In the same way that a military defeat might provoke strategic changes and new approaches, engineering failures pave the way for improvement in the ways that we design, build, and maintain our technological systems. But first,...