Coffeetable books: those decorative tomes of trite text and pretty pictures, usually about Swedish country homes or something frilly like thatz. Enter
David Stocklein and
Tom B. Saunder IV's The Texas Cowboys (Stocklein, $60 hard), with its iconographic Marlboro man cover belying the visual and textual depth the authors pursue within. Stocklein and Saunders visited 23 Texas ranches (four of whose brands are pictured here) and photographed over 120 cowboys going about their daily work. But more than just cataloging the cowboy's daily life, the authors include writings from the cowboys themselves; at points, the writings conjure up little more than hokey, stereotypical cowboy notions, but it is decidedly a better project to have the cowboys speak for themselves than be spoken for. As for Cowboy's photos (Stocklein's department), the book doesn't skimp on the big, grand ones (well befitting the subject) but it achieves much more in the less boisterous ones, like the two-page spread in which the procedure of "burning pear" is described. As Saunders explains, "To a South Texas rancher, a stand of prickly pear is like a cornfield to an Iowa farmer." In winter or during drought, prickly pear becomes the cow herd's main food, but the thorns have to be burned off in order for the cattle not to injure themselves. Stocklein does here exactly what is needed, which is photograph a pricked, tormented cow and images of burning thorns (unfortunately, this is also the spread in which Saunders describes the South Texas ranch hands performing this procedure as "the Mexican boys," which to be fair may just be shorthand for "cowboys" but elsewhere in the text "cowboys" means "cowboys"). The authors divide the state into seven geographic areas, and precisely detail the different topographies and varying duties of the cowboy from region to region. The last pages of the book give a brief history and current events about each of the ranches treated earlier in the book, and with information like that (information that the authors could've gotten by without including), it seems evident their purpose is to impressively archive a not dying but waning Texas tradition. Stocklein and (possibly) Saunders will be at Book People Sunday, November 23 at 3pm.
The Magic Number
On Saturday, November 22 at 3pm, Borders, with Sisters in Crime, will host a panel discussion with three local female mystery authors, Susan Wittig Albert, Barbara Burnett Smith, and Katherine Eliska Kimbriel. Albert has just published Love Lies Bleeding, Kimbriel's latest is Kindred Rites, and Smith has just published Mistletoe From Purple Sage, set in Austin and the latest in the Jolie Wyatt series. Three mystery authors, each with three names, at 3pm. Hmmm...When I wrote last week that local artist Michael Ray Charles would be at Barnes & Noble Westlake on Nov. 20, 7pm, I was just wrong; he'll actually be at B&N Guadalupe.
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