Among the many available books on geotechnical engineering, what sets this one apart is that the author, Fu Hua Chen, was an eminent practicing geotechnical engineer for several decades, so he offers the voice of experience. In fact, there are many points in the book where he shows an obvious disdain for academics (and lawyers), so the target audience for this book is clearly practitioners. I myself am such a practitioner, so my hope was to gain some genuine engineering wisdom from this book, and I wasn't disappointed.
Though the title of the book is "Soil Engineering," the emphasis is on structural foundations, and there is some coverage on how to deal with expansive soils, a topic on which Chen was a leading expert. The book doesn't aim to be encyclopedic, but rather focuses on core knowledge which will cover the needs of the vast majority of conventional projects. In this regard, Chen freely shares rules of thumb and opinions on a variety of technical matters, and he also goes into some depth on topics you won't typically find in books, such as drainage, distress investigations, legal aspects, and report writing.
I highly recommend this book to practicing geotechnical engineers. Younger engineers will find that the book helps them get their bearings, and more experienced engineers will enjoy comparing notes with Chen while picking up some new insights along the way.
