cover image Lone Star Living: Texas Homes and Ranches

Lone Star Living: Texas Homes and Ranches

Jack Parsons, Tyler Beard. Bulfinch Press, $40 (240pp) ISBN 978-0-8212-2820-3

A born and bred Texan who grew up in a""boots-and-hat environment full of tall Texas tales and braggadocio,"" Beard is the perfect author for this exuberant celebration of Texas taste. He has authored several books on American Western style (The Cowboy Boot Book; 100 Years of Western Wear, etc.) and, with his wife, custom-built his own pioneer ranch house. In this fully illustrated book, he showcases all manner of Texas houses: from the restored Masefeldt Ranch, which is decorated in""Texas Chateau Style"" with Louis XVI furniture and mesquite-wood chopping blocks, to the""Modern Mayan"" home of artist and ex-Soul Survivor rocker Charles Trois, whose architectural work most resembles that of the Spaniard Antonio Gaudi. A section of""Cottages and Lofts"" documents smaller, more urban homes, but even these contain details suggestive of the Texan penchant for expansiveness and eccentricity. There are big displays of child-sized cowboy boots, backyards glowing with kitschy neon signs and plenty of leather, wood and stucco. Beard's own writing has pleasantly irreverent swagger--he doesn't hesitate to point out when a homeowner has""bootfuls of money""--and Parson's photos are uniformly crisp and excellent.