What happens when rising stars collide?In And This Too Shall Pass, Harris takes us into the locker rooms and newsrooms of Chicago, where four lives are about to intersect in romance and scandal. At the heart of the novel is the celibate Zurich, a rookie quarterback for the Chicago Cougars whose trajectory for superstardom is interrupted by a sexual assault charge by Mia, a sportscaster with her own sights on fame. With his career in jeopardy, Zurich hires Tamela, a high-powered attorney, to defend him, while Sean, a gay sportswriter, covers the story and uncovers his heart. All of these characters face the challenge of keeping the faith--in themselves and in God--while Harris's heartfelt storytelling reveals how the love of family can help one to face the terrible legacy of long-held secrets. Throughout these characters' search for self-knowledge, Harris weaves the stories of MamaCee, Zurich's grandmother, whose lessons of faith teach one and all that "this too shall pass." Breaking new ground in contemporary fiction, And This Too Shall Pass entertains and affirms with its stirring message about the healing power of family and faith.

    Fight Club’s estranged narrator leaves his lackluster job when he comes under the thrall of Tyler Durden, an enigmatic young man who holds secret after-hours boxing matches in the basement of bars. There, two men fight "as long as they have to." This is a gloriously original work that exposes the darkness at the core of our modern world.

    Fresh and in-your-face, this witty novel depicts a world where women sometimes have to alter their dreams, but never have to stop embracing the future.

    Noah is restoring a plantation home to its former glory, and he is haunted by images of the beautiful girl he met fourteen years earlier, a girl he loved like no other. Unable to find her, yet unwilling to forget the summer they spent together, Noah is content to live with only memories...until she unexpectedly returns to his town to see him once again.Like a puzzle within a puzzle, the story of Noah and Allie is just the beginning. As it unfolds, their tale miraculously becomes something different, with much higher stakes. The result is a deeply moving portrait of love itself, the tender moments and the fundamental changes that affect us all. It is a story of miracles and emotions that will stay with you forever.

    The players take turns being fielders and runners, ultimately trying to tag the rest of the players out. In The Hot Box, best friends Milena and Lydia are playing the game with Jacour, Yosef, Glenn, and Phil. The only problem: the men do not realize that they are playing. Milena lives a sheltered and dismal existence and has not allowed a man to touch her body in eight years . . . until now. Lydia dreams of getting away from small-town America but, until she can make that happen, she is prepared to do whatever it takes to continue to have her bills paid . . . on time. Good sex always does the trick. Two women. Four men. Two love triangles. Reading has never been this hot because, once again, Zane is taking you outside the box.

    Spanning more than half a century, this story of Sallie and her family begins Michaels's powerful Vegas trilogy that marked the return of the Coleman family of Texas.

    While she knows racism is a problem (occasional brushes with the uglier side of people don't let her forget it), Naomi is, at heart, just like any other teenage girl. All of that changes when Joshua, Naomi's older brother, is killed in an accident on his way to a civil rights demonstration in Chicago. Racism becomes a personal issue, and Naomi decides that she needs to help bring about changes in the system. At college in Atlanta, she becomes immersed in politics, organizing protests and butting heads with school administrations as well as with her boyfriend, who isn't too friendly to the cause. Disillusioned by authority figures and betrayed by the man she loves, Naomi returns home, confused about the world and her place in it.

    Bestselling author Tina McElroy Ansa is back with another tale from Mulberry, Georgia, the richly drawn fictional town and home of the extraordinary Lena McPherson.  Lena, now forty-five and tired of being "the hand everyone fans with," has grown weary of shouldering the town's problems and wants to find a little love and companionship for herself.  So she and a friend perform a supernatural ritual to conjure up a man for Lena.  She gets one all right: a ghost named Herman who, though dead for one hundred years, is full of life and all man.  His love changes Lena's life forever, satisfying as never before both her physical and spiritual needs.  Filled with the same "humor, grace, and great respect for power of the particular" (The New York Times Book Review) as her previous critically acclaimed novels, Baby of the Family and Ugly Ways, The Hand I Fan With  is yet another memorable and life-affirming tale from one of America's best-loved authors.

    Beginning with a savage killing at a suburban Virginia juvenile detention center, Nathan's Run hurtles 12-year-old Nathan Bailey through a terrifying gauntlet. Accused of murder and branded a cop killer, Nathan becomes the target of a nationwide manhunt even as a vicious hit man is closing in on him. Orphaned and alone, Nathan has nowhere to turn for help. To stay alive he can count only on himself: on his agility, natural cleverness and honesty. Ironically, the latter proves a formidable weapon as the boy endears himself to a national radios talk show host and, along the way, pleads his case to a rapt nation. Still, "justice" will not be denied, and as an army of police and a dogged contract killer draw closer, Nathan is tested to the very limits of his endurance.

    There, he begins to undergo a startling transformation from neighbourhood outcast to basketball superstar, and eventually to reluctant messiah of a ‘divided, downtrodden people’. A bombastic coming-of-age novel that has the uncanny ability to make readers want to laugh and cry at the same time,Beatty mingles horrific reality with wild fancy in this outlandish, laugh-out-loud funny and poignant vision of contemporary America.

    . . in one day?In the autumn of 1931, Birch and Trudy Tucker are proud of what they’ve built with their love and labor in Shiloh, Arkansas. The farm produces fine cotton. The pantry and cellar are full of food for the winter. Tom and Bobby are old enough to help with the family chores but young enough to get into mischief. Little Joey is the joy of his mother’s heart.To the Canfield family—once sharecroppers—Shiloh is a dream come true. Jefferson and Lily, their babies, and his parents, Hock and Willa-Mae, are reunited, and Jefferson farms his own land. Then, on October 1, 1931, disaster strikes. The cotton market collapses in Memphis, and the little town of Shiloh is hit hard. It will take a miracle to save what Birch and Trudy and so many others have labored to build. Yet even the forces of nature seem to conspire against them. . . .Based on the lives of Bodie's grandparents, Shiloh Autumn is an inspiring story of courage, faith, love, and the healing strength of forgiveness in the face of loss and betrayal.

    Wendell Berry tackles the problem of truth and recollection as Andy Catlett gathers the details of this tragedy from the fragile memories of the townspeople. Tenderly, yet with directness, this short novel encompasses a changing way of life at the end of World War II.

    But because Mama couldn't find anyone who thought Avocet was a fine name for a child, she called me Bird. Which is okay by me. She named both her children after birds, her logic being that if we were named for something with wings then maybe we'd be able to fly above the shit in our lives. . . .                       So says Bird Jackson, the mesmerizing narrator of Connie May Fowler's vivid and brilliantly written, Before Women Had Wings.                       Starstruck by a dime-store picture of Jesus, Bird fancies herself "His girlfriend" and embarks upon a spiritual quest for salvation, even as the chaos of her home life plunges her into a stony silence. In stark and honest language, she tells the tragic life of her father, a sweet-talking wanna-be country music star, tracks her older sister's perilous journey into womanhood, and witnesses her mother make a courageous and ultimately devastating decision.                      Yet most profound is Bird's own story--her struggle to sift through the ashes of her parents' lives, her meeting with Miss Zora, a healer whose prayers over the bones of winged creatures are meant to guide their souls to heaven, and her will to make sense of a world where fear is more plentiful than hope, retribution more valued than love. . . .                     "A thing of heart-rending beauty, a moving exploration of love and loss, violence and grief, forgiveness and redemption."           --Chicago Tribune                      "There is no denying the depth of Connie May Fowler's talent and the breadth of her imagination."           --The New York Times Book Review                      "Brilliant."           --The Boston Sunday Globe

    Kay Arthur's dramatic, epic-style novel is now available in softcover with a beautiful new cover and a historical timeline that corresponds with the fascinating retelling of Israel's story. History comes alive as Kay begins with the tragic mistakes that led to Israel's captivity by Babylon and takes readers all the way to the modern-day miracles of triumph against all odds. A heartwarming novel filled with adventure and suspense, Israel, My Beloved is an incredible testimony of God's great love and faithfulness even in Israel's darkest hour.

    In Biloxi, Mississippi, a landmark tobacco trial with hundreds of millions of dollars at stake begins routinely, then swerves mysteriously off course. The jury is behaving strangely, and at least one juror is convinced he's being watched. Soon they have to be sequestered. Then a tip from an anonymous young woman suggests she is able to predict the jurors' increasingly odd behavior. Is the jury somehow being manipulated, or even controlled? If so, by whom? And, more importantly, why?From the Trade Paperback edition.

    On the surface it could be just one of hundreds in which some students will succeed and some will fall along the way. the hopes and dreams of so many people are tied up in the twice weekly lessons. they are ready to set off on the promised trip to Italy at the end of the year, everyone's destiny has changed utterly.

    Now she's his adopted daughter, the perfect all-American girl, and it seems like her past is another country.But Mersiha has been trained to kill. And when she discovers that Freeman's company is being subjected to a sinister takeover bid, she decides to help - whatever the risks.The consequences of her actions are lethal, for Mersiha has unearthed a conspiracy of terrifying proportions . . .*********PRAISE FOR STEPHEN LEATHER'A master of the thriller genre'Irish Times'A writer at the top of his game'Sunday Express'In the top rank of thriller writers' Jack Higgins

    Chronicling five generations of this eccentric clan, Fall on Your Knees follows four remarkable sisters whose lives are filled with driving ambition, inescapable family bonds, and forbidden love. Their experiences will take them from their stormswept homeland, across the battlefields of World War I, to the freedom and independence of Jazz-era New York City.Compellingly written, running the literary gamut from menacingly dark to hilariously funny, this is an epic saga of one family’s trials and triumphs in a world of sin, guilt, and redemption.

    Fate brings Jazmine and X-Man together as promising young stars for the same record company. They thrive on the excitement of their new careers and passionate love, until a power-hungry executive pits them against each other, jeopardizing both their musical careers and romantic future. Follow Jazmine and X-man as they discover that with the right mix of love and determination, it doesn't matter where you're from, it's where you're at.

    wants to share his parents' bittersweet love story with the world. On February 14, 1944, Caroline Thomas said good-bye to her beloved husband, a Navy pilot sent to the Pacific. For fifty year, she waited for him--until a miracle happened, and she received his last valentine. In the present day, when Susan and Neil meet, can the story of Neil's parents bring them together in a love as powerful as she dreams of and he remembers?

    Only his widow lives there now, grudgingly looked after by a self-serving couple, still complying with the rigid patterns laid down by Charles and his mother. But after her husband's death Madeleine begins to break free from his lingering domination. When her two grown-up children return, each seeking her help, Madeleine discovers in her new independence the ability to offer them the love she has never been able to express before.

    Angie Picard, struggling to hold on to her faith, is tested when a young girl and her father come into Angie's life whose needs are greater than her own and she must see if her love and faith can help them triumph over sorrow and loneliness.

    It's hard to find history written by the ones who lose," says the mystery history teacher, Kat O'Malley. Unbeknownst to her students, she's living the nine lives of a cat, and her history lessons come from four hundred years of underdog experience with witch trials, prejudice, intolerance and poverty. With much coaxing from the school's headmaster-a man with as many secrets in his past as Kat has in hers-"the CatWoman" ventures out from the mirage oasis she shares with fifty cats to teach lessons that never made it into the history books. Through her considerable gifts as a storyteller, she teaches a new generation to live as if they, too, had to live nine lives and jump back eight times into any messes they create. But when history repeats itself and the nightmare intolerance of Kat's past resurfaces, will she retreat forever into the safety of her cat-filled mirage? Or will she embrace her new life, her teaching and the love of the one person who knows her secret?

    One summer, Beth visits her grandmother and meets the irresistable Morgan, and her descent into darkness begins. The beloved child they conceive foretells a future of evil.

    When a biotechnology firm discovers a blood sample with unusual Y chromosomes that may have come from Jesus Christ, and experiments produce kinder, gentler mice and baboons, they make a deal with Michael Coleman, a convict awaiting execution.

    The mercenary had been called in for an urgent mission in the middle of the night. He'd miss Lexie, but the former Seal told himself that he and Lexie would both get over it. They'd been completely wrong for each other – in all but one way. Eleven months later, when Lexie's father asks Caine to rescue his daughter from the civil war in San Rafael, he barely recognizes Lexie. The former party girl has grown up, and she's the only nurse in a small village. And she has a child. His child. Will Caine be able to save the woman he hasn't been able to forget? Will Lexie be able to forgive him for disappearing? And will they be able to survive the jungle and figure out how to create a family?

    Nana's husband buys her a pearl necklace that is worn on every special occasion and is handed down through the generations, until it finally falls into the hands of a great-granddaughter who finds out from Nana the secret of the pearls.

    This is a collection of three works by Shirley Jackson: the novels The Haunting of Hill House and We Have Always Lived in the Castle and the short story, "The Lottery".

    "He brings to life characters and situations as vivid and compelling as any in contemporary literature."--Michael Dorris, The Washington Post Book World.

    But she's about to show an entire town what one good woman can do.

    The love they once shared has been tattered by time and torn apart by divergent goals. Their teenagers, Christie and Jordan, are rebellious, and their youngest child, six-year-old Ashley, is showing the hurt and confusion of her family's turmoil. Yet somehow the Christmas season must be gotten through even if it is only a game of let's pretend we are the way we always were. The perfect place for this make-believe is the Oak River Plantation in Virginia, a place of simple values, far from their sophisticated and difficult life in Miami. Here the Radcliffs are promised a traditional Christmas with all the Yuletide trimmings. So imagine their surprise when they are met by the quaint couple in charge, Jesse and Clarissa Wainscott, dressed in costumes dating from before the Civil War. Have they somehow entered another world that spans the gulf between past and present? Before Jon and Julie and their children can uncover the secrets surrounding their mysterious but marvelous hosts, they become aware of some profound truths about themselves. And suddenly they discover that love lost can be found again, making the bond of marriage and family strong enough to survive, even triumph.

    Her personal life is far less successful. A loving but overworked single mom, she is constantly at odds with her teenage daughter. At sixteen, Lina is confused, angry, and fast becoming a stranger to her mother—a rebel desperate to find the father who walked away before she was born. Complicating matters for Madelaine are the vastly different DeMarco brothers: While priest Francis DeMarco is always ready to lend a helping hand, his brother, Angel, long ago took on the role of bad boy. Years earlier Angel abandoned Madelaine—and fatherhood—to go in search of fame and fortune. His departure left Madelaine devastated, but now he reappears and seeks help from the very people he betrayed—as a patient in dire need. With Home Again, New York Times bestselling author Kristin Hannah has written a moving, powerful novel about the fragile threads that bind together our lives and the astonishing possibility of second chances.

    Bold, sassy, impulsive, with a taste for a good time, flirtation and strong drink, Kirsty Fowles very nearly gets the better of everyone.

    Part fiction, part cookbook, this richly illustrated book is reminiscent of the popular Griffin and Sabine, with its collection of letters to be removed from envelopes, and recipes tucked into their own little pockets. Drawings, photographs, snippets of diaries, and mysterious maps decorate this tale of Mademoiselle J., who arrives at Pistoulet with a broken heart. There she is welcomed by the farm's tenants: Madame Claude; Monsieur Andre; the black dog, Marcel; and a chicken that lays golden eggs. Soon, such soul-strengthening dishes as Potage of Babble (guaranteed to cease excessive chatter), Potage of Passion (Cooks beware: this soup has been known to result in marriage proposals!), and Tart of Sunshine (sure to heat both body and soul) have Mademoiselle J. on the road to recovery. The Secrets of Pistoulet packs a lot of charm into a small package. Readers who love to cook will want to try these simple, tasty recipes, though it may be difficult in some cases to follow the directions exactly ("Go to the nearest fishing port and acquire moules from the fisherman with the largest pecs and most tattoos....). Those who don't will be more than content to simply imagine these sumptuous meals as they, along with Mademoiselle J., attempt to unlock Pistoulet's magical mysteries.

    But from that day on, the two became inseparable. As different as night and day, their friendship thrives through shared trials, joys and finally devastating loss. Then the day comes when it seems that faith itself drives a tragic wedge between them, seeming to finalize when Jodie goes off to college. Now, with the United States joining the war effort in Europe, Bethan wonders if there will ever again be a return to harmony . . .

    Now she wants just one thing for Christmas: an angel doll. Unfortunately, in this small North Carolina town, no one has ever heard of such a thing. Nevertheless, Whitey Black and his best friend set out to find her one, at great cost and for even greater reward.Along the way they learn much about sadness and heartbreak, but most important, they learn about the transformative power of love.The Angel Doll is about childhood reaching out in later life and grabbing hold-never to be forgotten or remembered exactly as it was. Timeless and touching, The Angel Doll is sure to become a family favorite and a tradition for years to come.

    In this extraordinarily moving exploration of his parents' lives, his mother's inexplicable suicide in her late fifties and his own bouts of depression, Tim Lott conjures up the pebble-dashed home of his childhood and the rapidly changing landscape of postwar suburban England. It is a story of grief, loss and dislocation, yet also of the power of memory and the bonds of family love.

    Christopher and Corrie Braxton make their first little home in the bunkhouse connected to her father's barn, but danger from the past comes stalking Pa Hollister and threatens the happy family.

    Where two young friends plan to give a gift that may save a life. And where a one-room schoolhouse provides the setting for a miracle.

    Set in Prague in 1988—just before the Velvet Revolution—it tells the story of Louka, a virtuoso performer with the Czech Philharmonic, who has been banned from playing by the state. Now he finds himself playing at cemeteries for a living. Adding to his problems, an illegal arranged marriage has left the hardened bachelor with a little Russian boy to care for. From these elements, Zdenek Sverak—who also played Louka in the film—has woven an enduring tale of the transforming powers of music, language, and love.

    Her perseverance will fuel her dreams throughout childhood and medical school. And one day it will even lead her to America's untamed frontier. Based on the popular CBS television series.

    . . Provides rare insight into the three cultures--Spanish, Chinese, and Filipino--that coexist in the Philippines."--The New York Times Book ReviewCaridad's mother never writes. So when a letter arrives for her in Sydney from Manila, Caridad doesn't even recognize her mother's handwriting. There is more distance than just miles between the two women. And that is why Caridad is called home. Her mother needs to talk. And to reveal a secret that has been weighing heavily on her for years.As Caridad hears at last the unspoken stories, and the never forgotten tragedy of the war years, she will learn a startling truth that will change her life forever. For Caridad is not who she thinks she is. . . ."Beautifully written . . . Reading each chapter is like having a conversation with a close friend."--Chicago Tribune"A sensitive . . . portrait of a family of Filipina women . . . The novel illuminates much modern Philippine history."--The Boston Globe

    Kiana Sheridan is determined to discover what happened to her ancestors who escaped slavery by the Underground Railroad and disappeared.

    On the surface, the Donegals seem the picture-perfect norm of a nuclear family in the 1970s. But seen through the eyes of Liz Donegal, her world teeters on the brink of disintegration. Liz's father, an assistant college football coach, uproots his family annually with the motivational compassion of "Get your ass in the car." Her brothers Joe-Sam and Leo, whose first words are "hut, hut, hike," and sister, Peaches, a wannabe cheerleader, pick apart their lives and tentatively pull together in whatever town they land in, whether it's Bobcat Country or Shark Territory. While chaos reigns within the Donegal household, outside the family dog Halfback is busy digging up his predecessor Bear Bryant. At the center of this remarkable cast of characters, Liz creates a world for herself spun out of best friends, books, secret glimpses at sex manuals, and a few adults who actually understand what it means to grow up "offsides." Fostered by the creativity of her aunt Betty and uncle Peter, Liz first glimpses life beyond football games and Catholic school. When she isn't busy rebelling, singing Lou Reed songs, or transforming herself into Helen Keller or Anne Frank, Liz is falling in love, discovering herself, and learning that life also has some painful lessons.

    Believing lovely nurse Ruby Dee D'Angelo to be too special to remain with his family in the middle of nowhere, Will Starr resists his feelings for her, until she unexpectedly changes all of their lives.

    Nine-year-old Hannibal has lost his parents and moves in with his recently widowed grandfather, Pop. Hannibal grows up under the loving guidance of Pop, who subtly imparts life's important lessons: the responsibility that comes with love, the nature of charity respect for all living things, and the dangers in telling a lie. Pop is a humble man whose loving example extends far beyond his small circle. While he has attained no social recognition or position, the ripple effect of his example reaches generations into the future. With simple storytelling and honest sentiment, The Mourning Dove answers the question, "What is the worth of one person?"

    Now, she is coming to understand that life is determined as much by chance as by careful control. If only she can be assured of loving and of being loved. But the love she finds is more than the romance she dreamed about as a girl. It is the guilty but savored passion of an affair with a married man, the poignant caring for an aging father, the visceral bonding between mother and child. Held in an intricate web of emotion, she must understand and encompass it as a woman, a lover, a wife and a mother. Diane Schoemperlen has written an astonishing and inventive first novel of a young woman's progress of love, from childhood to adulthood. Employing the 100 stimulus words from the Standard Word Association Test as her narrative framework, Schoemperlen interweaves, in a series of short but brilliant chapters, the defining moments of Joanna's life.

    What she doesn't count on is a petty thief breaking into her house to evade capture. Instead of turning him in, she decides to safeguard him from a lynching posse. Now with the entire town against her and a crooked gang out to drive her off her land, it's up to this two-bit-thief, inspired by her sense of justice, to become a protector and fighter...even with the odds completely against him... • In the "New York Times" bestselling tradition of Zane Gray, Larry McMurtry, and Cormac McCarthy. • Film rights for All God's Children has been optioned by Steven Spielberg's DreamWorks. • Thomas Eidson is also author of "St. Agnes' Stand" and "The Last Ride" • "St. Agnes' Stand" also won the Best First Novel and Best Western Novel from the Western Writers of America. • "St. Agnes' Stand" won the "Thumping" Good Fiction Award from W.H. Smith in the U.K. and was shortlisted for the "Sunday Express" Book of the Year Award. • Film rights for "St. Agnes' Stand have been sold to Miramax, and will be directed by Michael Winterbottom. • We have another novel coming from Thomas Eidson.

    He died at a tragically young age in 1975, and these books collect most of his entire oeuvre. Schizophrenia is Bode's most personal work, including the legendary "The Man, " as well as Bode's personal diaries. Junkwaffel Vol. 2 is a collection of Bode's science-fiction oriented tales, including several "Deadbone" strips from Cavalier, "The Junkwaffel Papers, " and rare material. Cheech Wizard is a two-volume set reprinting the original National Lampoon series, Cheech's underground newspaper appearances, and never-before-seen material. Lizard Zen features the rarest and most obscure of Bode's work, including the full-color "Coco Crow" an the very last strips done before his death.

    He has never asked her for a date -- she doesn't even know his last name -- yet whenever he shows up he starts talking about their future life together. She decides it is a harmless game, but there is something about William that intrigues her. Where is he coming from?

    Such popular authors as Angela Elwell Hunt, Francine Rivers, Bodie Thoene, Calvin Miller, and many more contribute stories ranging from historical to contemporary.

    Garrison Keillor's Horrors! is a grab bag of treats from Halloween broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion. Horrors! features eclectic musical performances, commercials for loyal Prairie Home "sponsors" like Guy's Shoes, and lighthearted comedy from A Prairie Home Companion's cast of regulars.Halloween is a time when everyone's a kid again—perhaps that's why it's so eagerly celebrated by adults. Listen to Horrors! and you'll smile, you'll shiver, and you might even take a peek to see what's lurking in the shadows. Contents:Halloween; This Wonderful World-Bats; Butch Thompson: In the Dark; The News from Lake Wobegon: The Ethics of Jokes; Blue Turtles by Rich Dworsky; The Raven by Edgar Allen Poe; Halloween: The Movie; Cafe Boeuf; That's Odd; Halloween at the Radio Station; Funerary Verse; Flies; News from Lake Wobegon: The Do-Rites; Celebrity Halloween; Little Red Riding Hood; Buried Alive; Butch Thompson: Creepy Feeling by Jelly Roll Morton

    Her mother—a Panamanian immigrant—was too often overwhelmed by the task of raising Veronica and her difficult younger brother on her meager secretary's salary to applaud her daughter's achievements. From an early age, Veronica understood that the best she could do for her mother was to be a perfect child—to rewrite her Christmas wish lists to her mother's budget, to look after her brother, to get by on her own.Though her mother seemed to bear out the adage that "black women raise their daughters and mother their sons," Veronica never stopped trying to do more, do better, do it all. And now, as a successful young woman who's achieved more than her mother dared hope for her, she looks back on their mother-daughter bond. The critically acclaimed Mama's Girl is a moving, startlingly honest memoir, in which Chambers shares some important truths about what we all really want from our mothers—and what we can give in return.

    And just when it looks like Oz is in over his head, in walks Primavera Phillips, the most irresistible woman he’s ever seen.

    Cooke captures Zeena's storyin Zeena's own voice. The author's compassionate portrayal illuminates and deepens the beloved work, but also stands solidly on it own.