Who doesn’t love a tugboat? Stubby strivers of the seas, stalwart, strong, and stable, they speak to a need for stability amid the churn. Cambridge architect Paul Farrell channels deep admiration and interest for the tug into a beautiful ode to the workhorses of the waterways in a book that’s been 20 years in the making. “Tugboats Illustrated: History, Technology, Seamanship’’ (Norton) has a scrapbookish feel. Photographs spanning centuries show all sorts of tugs in action; the sketches are done by Farrell himself, showing an architect’s elegant precision. You will learn about the boat, its history, its workings, the way it moves, but more than that the book is a look into a mind’s enthusiasm, and this mind is curious, sharp, engaged, and passionate. “What interests me is the interplay between ideas, the things people build and the environment that shapes how they build them,’’ Farrell writes.

NINA MACLAUGHLIN