"The title refers to the fear of ever-impending earthquakes, which led Mexicans to build their capital city outward rather than upward. With the perspicacity of a keenly observant flâneur, Villoro wanders through the city seemingly without a plan, describing people, places, and things, while brilliantly drawing connections among them, the better to reveal, in all its multitudinous glory, the vicissitudes and triumphs of Mexico City's cultural, political,...

Evil Is Coming – Worse than You Imagine

"From a lowly mixture of stone, sand, water, and cement have sprung sidewalks, streets, and skyscrapers, . . . lighthouses and . . . palaces, long bridges and massive dams. In ancient building practices, in modern engineering, and in the architecture of the future, humble concrete plays a mighty role in the creation of the human-made world. With facts and . . . running narrative in the form of repartee-filled speech bubbles, [this book] is . . . informative...