Louisiana College Books

This is great for Marquette die-hards but it could've been better. The interviews are thrown together so it's like hearing one side of a conversation. There's little exposition or writing to weave the stories together.

Peter Taylor, whom William Du Bois, writing in the New York Times, proclaimed "a master of the short story form," was also a Pulitzer-prize winning novelist, a playwright, and sometimes poet who was numbered as one of the first generation of writers to make their living teaching writing.

Knowing what we know now, that Taylor would enter academia, it's interesting that upon his completion of studies at Kenyon College he wrote that he longed that "this limbo of a life could go on forever; I dread seeing the great real world again."

He would seldom have to for when he enrolled in Allen Tate's composition course at Southwestern College in Memphis he found instead entrée into an elite literary society when Tate and his wife, novelist Caroline Gordon, soon invited Taylor to dinner and into their world.

Taylor would go on to Louisiana State University for graduate studies, and when a number of his short stories were published in the Southern Review, he gained recognition in literary circles. Deciding graduate courses weren't his forte, Taylor soon resolved to return to Memphis since he was "starving for the sweet taste of gossip, absurd argumentation, intimate Sunday-night suppers, carousing evenings...and an occasional whiff of the rare, rank odor of Memphis High Society."

Unfortunately, McAlexander isn't able to provide us with much detail about such carousing and the book ends up reading like a busy social calendar.

Unable to avoid the draft as a conscientious objector, Taylor found himself involved in the Second World War much to his own chagrin, but it was in the army that he was given his first teaching position when he was assigned to teach American literature at an army school. After the war he took a job teaching at Woman's College (later the University of North Carolina at Greensboro) and soon thereafter Harcourt, Brace published Taylor's first collection of short stories, A Long Fourth and Other Stories.

At one point, Taylor confided to friend Tom White, "I now have 'tenure' in the teaching profession and can be fired only for a 'treasonable act' or for 'gross immorality.' What an awful situation for a man of my temperament to be in at [thirty-one]! The impulse to throw it all overboard grows stronger everyday."

He would avoid this impulse throughout his life. Perennially restless, he would change publishers, homes and colleges the way most of us change our shirts, eventually teaching at Indiana University, the University of Chicago, Kenyon College, Ohio State University, and Harvard, among others. His stories often first appeared in Kenyon Review, Sewanee Review, Harper's Bazaar and the New Yorker, while collections were published by a series of book publishers.

Notorious for missing deadlines (for classes and other teaching duties as well as writing assignments), Taylor - like most writers - was disheartened by critical reviews (As John Osborne once said, "Asking a writer what he thinks about negative reviews is like asking a lamppost what it feels about dogs!") and ashamed of some of his own works. After the opening of one of his plays, Tennessee Day, in Nashville, he confided to a fellow Memphian, "Finally I was so embarrassed that I just sneaked away into the night."

Despite his early apprehension about the teaching profession, Taylor would come to love the social opportunities it afforded him, while he exerted a profound influence on his students. Reflecting on his studies at Harvard under Taylor, James Thackara says, "Within the first few minutes of my first conference, the roles of professor and student were dropped. He must have known that I was a homicidal writer, that for me being a writer was a matter of life and death"; and commenting on Taylor's reading of Chekhov's "Gusev," Lawrence Reynolds conveys, "His voice created the story for me in a way my own reading had never done, he made it real, he made it matter."

Taylor was the consummate friend within his vast social circles (populated by Tate, Elizabeth Hardwick, Robert Lowell, John Crowe Ransom, Randall Jarell, and others), which would prove to be his greatest distraction from writing as he and his wife (poet Eleanor Ross Taylor) became legendary for the parties they gave.

In the real world, Taylor noticed the little things: a painting of a beautiful woman in a coffee shop, the waiter talking to himself, an anonymous man who's just realized the main seam in his coat has come undone. But other than a brief description from Brian Griffin (a former student who served for awhile as Taylor's typist), we gain little insight into how Taylor wrote, other than his determination to do so in the face of numerous rejections from the New Yorker and other publishers. Observing Taylor scribbling with a pencil in a notebook on a sofa, Griffin described Taylor's writing as "the unintelligible scrawl of a desperate man."

Eleanor was a devoted wife, offering her unfailing support - while the lives of those around them were in disarray, often marred by suicide - even though she and Peter were vastly different people; he an extrovert (described as ebullient), she an introvert and somewhat of a recluse (described as reticent). She described differences best herself in a poem entitled "Kitchen Fable" which appeared in the New Yorker, which ends with, "He dulled; he was a dull knife/ while she was, after all, a fork."

Late in life, Taylor was diagnosed with diabetes and suffered a series of debilitating strokes. He died in 1994 at the age of 77.

Of Taylor's novel, In the Tennessee Country, Alicia Metcalf Miller wrote in the Cleveland Plains Dealer, "under an extravagantly bland exterior, it seethes with anger, failure, and pain."

There are hints that her words would also seem apt in describing Taylor's life, but here we see little more than the "bland exterior."

Former Taylor students might enjoy this reverent biography.

See Robb Forman Dew, "Now Known as Peter Taylor," in The New York Times Book Review, Sunday, September 30, 2001, p. 10, and
Jonathan Yardley, "Peter Taylor," in The Washington Post Book World, Sunday September 30, 2001, p. 2.

A professor of English at UGA, Mr. McAlexander personally knew Mr. Taylor and edited "Conversations with" the writer and "Critical Essays on" his works before being given access to the papers in his widow's--poet Eleanor Ross Taylor's--possession. In the present volume, befitting his subject, the biographer gracefully weaves the history of 20th century American letters through the life and works of perhaps its most admired short story writer.

This book was boring. What is meagan Mckinney doing, her older books, My Wicked Enchantress were good but these new ones are tiresome. I basically skimmed the entire book and the only reason why I didn't stop reading was to give her a chance.

PLEASE try to write how you used to HISTORICAL romances with some degree of fun!

After this book I may no longer buy.

I'm a huge fan of Megan McKinney's earlier books (When Angels Fall, My Wicked Enchantress). However, her last 3 or 4 books have been diappointing.

If there is one glaring difference between her ealier novels and more recent ones, it's character development. In Still of the Night, it is lacking. Sure, we read a lot about heroine Stella's academic background and family history. But that's just what it is: academic. Nothing that makes me feel for the character or want to root for her. And while growing sugar cane is an interesting field, the author details it ad nausem to the point that I was bored to death. As for the hero, he's got a little more of an edge than bland Stella, but even his standard "Something happened in my past that I feel guilty about" hangup wasn't interesting b/c it wasn't really explored. It just seemed like something thrown in to give him an "edge."

The villains were simpletons. Throw in a nostalgic, wise old aunt and her companion, a wise cracking best friend (annoying), Stella analyzing everything (she even starts to analyze and think about family history while she and the hero are in the middle of sex), and looooong passages on sugar cane and its by products, and I was skimming just to be done with the book.

I've been a reluctant fan of this author's historical romances for one reason: the heros are sometimes inexplicably cruel, remaining unrepentant right up until the final pages. Brooding bad-boy heros can be erotic in the hands of an excellent writer, which is why I keep coming back for more - and hoping for a more balanced approach to sexy male leads. In "Still of the Night," McKinney has provided just that: a solid, sensual hero who actually behaves like a hero despite his tormented past.

As plotlines go, this one has few surprises. But the setting is both unusual and marvelously evocative, the characters are an intriguing mix, the villains are deliciously nasty, and there's plenty of sexual chemistry between aristocratic Stella and "Cowboy," the sleazeball bouncer at the local dive to whom she is reluctantly, disturbingly attracted. As sure as swamps have mosquitos, there's more to Cowboy than meets the eye. (If you consider that revelation a spoiler, you're new to the romantic suspense genre. You'd have found out from reading the book jacket if you hadn't read it here, so don't go away mad.)

If I have a complaint about "Still of the Night," it's that I wanted more and longer scenes with the two key protagonists. But I'm happy to say that I enjoyed the whole book, and never felt tempted to skip to "the good parts" as I often do with other authors of romantic suspense.

Neither was I tempted, even once, to read the final pages before finishing the book - as I've done a couple of times when reading McKinney - just to assure myself that the Bad Boy would eventually stop being an ass.

I actually admired the hero this time, right from the get-go. That's the surprise I've been hoping to see from this author.

"Still of the Night" is the first book by Meagan McKinney that I have read. In it I encountered a "woman's blend" of romance, mystery, and suspense that seemed initially engaging. There was also a big element of "action/violence" that seemed to have strayed from another genre.

McKinney's Louisiana "downhome" sayings are fresh and unjaded, and her language escapes cliches. The love/sex scenes are well portrayed with the right touches of physical allure and emotional involvement.

In spite of her deft phrases and skillful dialogue, I found "Still of the Night" too formulaic, as if conforming to a careful outline with a strange spin intended to appeal to women and men alike. From its promising opening pages, I expected another kind of book. I missed the integrity of a full-hearted, cleaner romantic novel it could have been.

This is the first book I have read by Meagan McKinney, and I have to tell you that it won't be the last! Suspenseful and just the right amount of romance for my taste. Stella de St. Vallier is the main character who lives at an old manor in Louisiana. She is entangled in many webs of intrigue, darkness, and disbelief. She is also searching for the 200 plus year old treasure that is supposedly hidden in her manor, Shadow Oaks. She lives with her great-aunt Rose and friend Leora, a.k.a. Maman. Just wait till you get to the end, you won't believe it!!! Don't miss this fantastic read!

I expected more. This is just a rehash of a lot of stuff you've probably already read. Try "A Tailgater's Guide To SEC Football" for a great read by an LSU grad, Chris Warner. You'll love it.

I went back and forth as I read this book. Brodhead obviously need to write this to gain some closure on what was obviously a painful experience. But I don't doubt his sincerity when it comes to reflecting on the good ole boy network that he was at war with for almost all of his tenure as the AD at LSU. And his documentation and research is superb. One thing is for sure-the man loved his job and he loved LSU. It's a shame he couldn't have followed through on his plans.

Which one of these is endorsed by Saban?
Try "A Tailgater's Guide to SEC Football by Chris Warner. It's worth your money and time. This is not. I found several errors inside.

Every single book he puts his name on is full of errors and useless as a serious football book. When is he going to team up with a real outfit and produce a book worthy of a true fan's dollar?
Try "A Tailgater's Guide To SEC Football". I love it. This is a waste of hard-earned cash.

If there weren't treasured pictures of my beloved Tigers in this book, I would throw it away. Who edited this thing? Who checked the spelling? Who checked to make sure the correct players were identified in the captions under the pictures? Best of all, Tiger fans, did you know that Justin
Vincent's real name is Sam Vincent???????

Don't waste your time. There are three different books with the same photo by different publishers. They are all ripoffs. Try Chris Warner's "A Tailgater's Guide To SEC Football". It's much better than this filler book.