Errands

As bestselling author of the critically acclaimed masterpiece, Ordinary People, Judith Guest knows the subtle rhythms of family life. With a perceptive eye that captures the nuanced relationships of husbands and wives, parents and children, and the constant tug-of-war of sibling rivalry, she creates remarkably real characters struggling with profound dilemmas. Now, in her luminous new novel, Errands, Guest once again gives us an unforgettable family that finds the fabric of their lives unraveling. North of Bay City, Michigan, past the small highway town of Au Gres, past acres of sugar beets and fields of grazing sheep, the Browner family enters the slow curve in the road that leads onto a view of Lake Huron. Keith, Annie, and their three children have rented the same cottage here every summer for the past six years. They know this place like the back of their station wagon. But a shadow has fallen over this particular trip: Keith is dying of cancer. It is a fate he has accepted. Annie however can not, will not. Once safe inside a happy seventeen-year marriage, Annie finds her entire world turned upside down after Keith's death. Her sister, Jess, does her best to comfort Annie, only to find the boundaries of their own close relationship stretched to its limits. Consumed with grief, mounting bills, everyday tasks that seem insurmountable, and three kids that have become nagging sources of frustration, Annie fails to see that the family is beginning to come apart. Thirteen-year-old Harry, the oldest, changes into a brooding teen, roaming the streets with a new rebellious friend; Julie, the youngest at nine, starts to lie about her whereabouts, but keeps a secretjournal that reveals her true feelings; and Jimmy, sandwiched forever in the middle, can no longer take the pressure of being the peacemaker. As each child moves toward his or her own level of acceptance, a second threatening event will transform both the children and Annie, teaching them that, even with the loss of Keith, they are still a family--a different family, but one that is no less loving, real, and enduring than they had been with a father and husband in the house. Searing in its depiction of despair, warm in its evocation of family and the fragile ties that bind them, and tempered with gentle humor and dazzling wit, Errands is nothing less than a triumph. Judith Guest strikes at the very core of loss, and has written her most extraordinary novel to date. A MAIN SELECTION OF THE LITERARY GUILD(c) AN ALTERNATE SELECTION OF THE DOUBLEDAY BOOK CLUB(c) "From the Hardcover edition.

Luke the piglet loves to run errands. His errand for mom to the store to buy her an egg turns into an errand for several neighbors! Luke needs to do some addition to get the right number of eggs!

An exploration of the transatlantic character of early-American religious dissent

Night Errands is an anthology comprising personal essays and accompanying poems by over two dozen contemporary American poets. It focuses specifically on the messages the subconscious sends nightly to poets, and the ways such communications affect their work. The book is based on the premise that dreams and poetry are intimately related and in fact, parallel languages. Both rely on compression, juxtaposition, deep imagery and ambiguity to create a charged atmosphere and unearth buried truths.

Subtitled "A Novel of the South During Reconstruction," this 1879 bestseller, by a participant in that great social experiment, is the barely fictionalized account of the career of a Northern lawyer in North Carolina after the Civil War. A champion of the poor and landless of any race, and a keen observer of the dilemmas facing uneducated Negroes in the postwar period, Tourge offers us an important eyewitness account of one of the most tumultuous eras of American history, one that continues to influence the course of the American experiences of race and class to this day.

In the decade following the end of the Cold War the United States undertook several nation-building missions around the globe, most of which have failed. We said we'd bring order to Somalia, but we left chaos. We went to Haiti to restore democracy, but left tyranny. We intervened in Kosovo to create a multiethnic democracy, but we may become embroiled in renewed strife and bloodshed. This extremely timely book cuts through the excuses and uncovers the causes of Washington's pattern of failure.

When Prince Dutiful disappears, is it only because he is nervous about his betrothal ceremony, or has he been taken hostage by the Witted? As the situation worsens, Queen Kettricken summons Fitz to track the young prince down than another gifted with the Wit? This is the first in a new trilogy.

An Absorbing Errand uses stories of artists' lives, personal anecdotes, and insights from the author's work as a psychotherapist to examine the psychological obstacles that prevent people from staying with, and relishing, the process of art–making. Each chapter is devoted to a problem intrinsic to the creative process and illustrates how these very obstacles, once understood, can become prime sources of the energy that actually fuels the mastery of art–making. Ultimately, An Absorbing Errand provides a philosophical, historical, and analytical look at the creative impulse and how certain artists from a wide field mastered their craft. From Julia Child to Charlie Chaplin, Lady Gaga to Michael Jackson, famous painters to established writers, Smith shows us how each overcame the obstacles they faced in the pursuit of their creative visions. Many people carry within their hearts an aching sense that they have something they want to express through art; or that they will not feel complete until they've brought out some hidden part of themselves. Yet they cannot begin to do the work of bringing their creative idea into the world. Or, maybe they've begun over and over, but they can't stay with their labor long enough to finish it. An Absorbing Errand is a supportive companion, an enlightened and compassionate ballast, a guide for anyone who has ever picked up a pencil to write, or a paint brush to paint, or any tool —from chisel to loom— to pursue any serious craft, and then put it down again frustrated, discouraged, and unable to continue. An Absorbing Errand is unlike any book about creating art of any kind, and aspiring and working artists alike will find it both original and invaluable.

In this comprehensive history of American foreign-mission thought from the colonial period to the current era, William R. Hutchinson analyzes the varied and changing expressions of an American "sense of mission" that was more than religious in its implications. His account illuminates the dilemmas intrinsic to any venture in which one culture attempts to apply its ideals and technology to the supposed benefit of another.