I have owned beagles before, both as pups and adopted as adults, so I was already familliar with the breed's behaviors, but did want to buy this for a 'refresher course' in Beag-ology.

This is one of the best books I have read on Beagle-owning. From behavior to feeding, breeding, etc. The writing style is very easy to digest and the information is partitioned for quick reference if you need it. Very informative and easy to understand.

And, if you are unfamilliar with beagles at all and are thinking of adding one to your family, I can't stress enough how helpful this book will be in either 1.) your decision-making or 2.) adoption. Anyone not used to the beagles temperment and behavior needs to get this before being faced with a bevy of adorable pups. They are as 'energetic' and destructive as they are cute and do require some atypical attention. This book explains beagle pros and cons perfectly and can provide you with adequate information necessary in deciding if a beagle is right for you.

This was a wonderful, informative book about Beagles. The author wrote the book using "Sam" & "Rosy" as Beagle examples (fictionary Beagles) throughout the entire book, giving the dogs a more positive personal presence while you are reading it. It has been so very helpful to me in the decision making of the purchase of a puppy Beagle and will help me prepare for the days ahead (and some sleepless nights as well)... My husband even enjoyed reading it to better prepare for the arrival of our new little one.

A great book that I would recommend to anyone who is interested in or already owns a Beagle.

I love this book and it gives me all the info I need to take care of my beagle. I would recommend this book to any owners of beagles hard to train or has bad habits. So go get this wonderfully written book with great pictures.

I'LL TAKE YOU THERE was my first exposure to Joyce Carol Oates so I had no idea what to expect when I initially opened the front cover. At first glance the unnamed protagonist struck a nerve with me. She seemed so...strange and bizarre. But as the plot unfolded I became more entranced by her and began to comprehend her motives and actions. She was no longer strange but indeed a real and complex human being. Lacking any type of supporting family network she ventures through life trying to make emotional connections with others that she never experienced before. Set in upstate New York in the early 1960's the protagonist tries her best to integrate into Syracuse University social life. Unfortunately the harder she tries the more isolated she becomes. Her sorority sisters and classmates view her as a loser and social outcast. Her self-esteem suffers. Taking refuge in her studies she becomes enthralled by philosophical inquires. While in class one day she becomes acquainted with an advanced graduate student who shares her passion for philosophy. Social mores dictate that they should not become friends, let alone lovers, since she is white and he is black. Determined that she has enough love for both of them she begins to follow him around campus and stand outside of his apartment building. In the midst of the Civil Rights movement both characters face the harsh realities of race relations that are determined to split them apart. I'LL TAKE YOU THERE is a captivating novel that seeps into one's subconscious even while not reading. Oates' unnamed protagonist is unique and captivating. I enjoyed reading this book and I found myself often looking forward to the next time I can pick it up again.

This is a book about love: The narrator tells us about her attempts to belong. She wants to belong to the sorority, be one of those smooth, lovable girls - but all too soon she realizes that this cannot be: she's different. Maybe this feeling of being different from the "normal" people around her attracts her to the graduate student Vernor, although she falls in love with his clever voice before she sees his African American face. Vernor hates himself; he is drawn to philosophy because it seems to be a spiritual realm untainted with self; so it is no wonder that he cannot accept the narrator's love. The narrator's family seems to be devoid of love. Her mother died shortly after the narrator was born, who finds herself accused of being the one to blame for her mother's death. Her father, brothers, grandparents are taciturn, elusive strangers; and yet... This powerful novel shows how you create yourself, trying to be who you want to be; at the same time it proves that there are basics - roots? - from which you cannot escape.

Oates is a master at evoking physical and spiritual reality. The reader can smell the nightmare of the sorority house; the physical encounters with Vernor are so shocking because they are so real.
Maybe some readers' judgments are clouded by their expectations which come from reading other novels by Joyce Carol Oates. This is the first novel by her I have read, and I am deeply impressed by her mastery of the English language, by the beautiful rhythms and vivd descriptions which reminded me of Woolf and Mansfield.

I'll Take You There is a story divided into three sections concerning crucial stages of a girl's development and narrated in the first person by the girl, Anellia, herself. This is the same structure Joyce Carol Oates uses in her 1986 novel Marya: A Life though the stories of the two novels differ in some crucial elements. The first section, The Penitent, is primarily concerned with Anellia's torturous time spent in a sorority called Kappa Gamma Pi and her relationship with the foreboding and ultimately tragic English headmistress Mrs. Agnes Thayer. Her entrance into the sorority sparked by a timid desire to gain acceptance from her peers, gradually reveals the shallow nature of the sisters and the vacuous symbols of their elite collective. The second section, The Negro Lover, explores Anellia's complex relationship with brilliant and troubled Vernor Matheius. Her obsession with the philosophy student blooms into a tumultuous relationship based on passion that is stirred by feelings of alienation. Each of them are fiercely intelligent and trapped by a societal definition based on the exterior that they cannot escape. But unlike Vernor, Anellia embraces this identity distinction, her Jewish heritage, in order to exile herself from the repugnant normality she has discovered. The third and slightest section, The Way Out, finds Anellia extracted from the developmental struggle of university and unexpectedly driven to a reunion with her estranged father. As he is slowly dying, she develops a relationship with his caregiver and fiancee Hildie. The feelings of opportunities lost and emotions wasted are gradually excavated over their time together as they come to terms with losing a man who will always remain an aloof mystery.

This novel is brewing with complex ideas all delicately arranged around an intricate plot. The sections of the novel could stand quite independently from each other. But together they draw an intriguing picture of Anellia's development and her discovery of the woman she wants to become. The frame she has set around her life is designed to mollify her qualms with existence but it is also a trap that limits the freedom of her individuality. The language she composes to liberate herself is also an unbearable burden. This is revealed in the telling line: "In fear I seemed to be plucking at, with childish fingers, a consolation of philosophy." Anellia's relationship with Vernor is akin to an artist gazing upon her muse, drawing inspiration and guidance to create an artwork, an identity for herself. Unhesitating in her confrontation of the troubles of racial relations as Oates always is, the denial of the language which defines Vernor's color provokes the collapse of any true connection between them. This, paired with Vernor's own inability to divert from the path he has limited himself to, makes their coupling wildly antagonistic and dangerous.

It is significant that Oates has dedicated this novel to Gloria Vanderbilt, the visual artist, on who's work Oates has written: "It may be that Dream Boxes represent an elliptical, subversive reclaiming of identity by one who has, unlike most of us, been over-defined - 'over-determined' in psychoanalytical terms-by the exterior world." Anellia is also unique and this confession to an unknown companion is her psychological triptych. Engagingly emotional and philosophical, I'll Take You There is a deep study of a difficult climb to adulthood. Its artful composition produces a compelling novel. It is a skillful accomplishment that can be enjoyed by both the passionate thinking and the romantic reader.