Customer Reviews

Texas Hill Country

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Some may say Texans have a tendency to brag. Perhaps so. The truth is there's much that merits attention in the Lone Star State. At the top of any boasting list would surely be the beautiful Hill Country that is celebrated in this keepsake volume with narration by acclaimed author John Graves and some 75 striking full-color images by noted photographer Wyman Meinzer.

Some of our land's most breathtaking landscapes and a melange of cultures are found in the Hill Country, a stretch of about 200 miles through the state capital, Austin, to colorful San Antonio, and further almost to the Mexican border.

In the words of John Graves, a man who loves and understands his state, readers are privy to little known facts and moving remembrances as he pinpoints German architecture, small town life, and the wonders of nature. Marks left on this region by its varied settlers are noted - the effects of Native Americans, Spaniards, Mexicans, Western Europeans, and other pioneers.

Vistas, as captured with the lens of Wyman Meinzer are incredible - stark outcroppings lean into the sky while miles of wildflowers delight the senses.

Texas Hill Country will be treasured by historians, travelers and, of course, Texans.

- Gail Cooke

Finally, someone captures the beauty and serenity Texas' most wonderful region, without feeling compelled to show pictures of big cities and subdivisions from overhead!! I have searched for years for such book, and John Graves definitly delivers it!
This book is full of interesting historic information, fused with lovely countryside images of the hill country.
My only comment is that it would have been nice to have an idea (page by page) of where the pictures were taken. To find out, one must flip back and forth to the index page and cross-reference it with page numbers (which are not on all the pages). On the other-hand, the photos are not "soiled" with a bunch of letters, words, numbers, etc.
A really nice coffee table book for those who love the heart of Texas.

This is the essential photo collection of Texas Hill country scenes. Photos at different seasons & wide variety of "cultural" and purely natural scenes. I've sent copies to friends outside the USA to show that Texas is not just a prairie like the scenes in the movie "Giant"

I share the authors love of the Hill Country and yeah like the review below said the authors view is utopic, but ive spent lots of time in the hill country and frankly it is simply perfect, well maybe not San Ynez Valley perfect, but close to it. The images are quite good, though some just dont really capture my vision of the Hill country, but most are very representative. Brousing this book will make anybody dream of a long drive through the hilly, bluebonnet strewn landscape that is Texas' iconic Hill Country; how's that for utopia.

I purchased this rather expensive "coffee table" book with the hope of receiving an idealized photo-documentary of the Hill Country (at least, more than what I already know). I got a big book with lots of mundane landscape scenes - many shrouded in fog and cloud cover. Sort of like battlefield pictures long after a war ended.

The narrative was short and basically a flashback of the writer's utopic vision of the Hill Country set against the current status quo. Not the kind of story that inspires you to rush to Central Texas and explore.