The unflinching story of a professional oboist who finds order and beauty in music as her personal life threatens to destroy her. Music was everything for Marcia Butler. Growing up in an emotionally desolate home with an abusive father and a distant mother, she devoted herself to the discipline and rigor of the oboe, and quickly became a young prodigy on the rise in New York City's competitive music scene. But haunted by troubling childhood memories while balancing the challenges of a busy life as a working musician, Marcia succumbed to dangerous men, drugs and self-destruction. In her darkest moments, she asked the hardest question of all: Could music truly save her life? A memoir of startling honesty and subtle, profound beauty, The Skin Above My Knee is the story of a woman finding strength in her creative gifts and artistic destiny. Filled with vivid portraits of 1970's New York City, and fascinating insights into the intensity and precision necessary for a career in professional music, this is more than a narrative of a brilliant musician struggling to make it big in the big city. It is the story of a survivor. One of 2017's 35 over 35 One of the Washington Post's Top 10 Classical Music Moments of the Year

The unflinching story of a professional oboist who finds order and beauty in music as her personal life threatens to destroy her. Music was everything for Marcia Butler. Growing up in an emotionally desolate home with an abusive father and a distant mother, she devoted herself to the discipline and rigor of the oboe, and quickly became a young prodigy on the rise in New York City's competitive music scene. But haunted by troubling childhood memories while balancing the challenges of a busy life as a working musician, Marcia succumbed to dangerous men, drugs and self-destruction. In her darkest moments, she asked the hardest question of all: Could music truly save her life? A memoir of startling honesty and subtle, profound beauty, The Skin Above My Knee is the story of a woman finding strength in her creative gifts and artistic destiny. Filled with vivid portraits of 1970's New York City, and fascinating insights into the intensity and precision necessary for a career in professional music, this is more than a narrative of a brilliant musician struggling to make it big in the big city. It is the story of a survivor. One of 2017's 35 over 35 One of the Washington Post's Top 10 Classical Music Moments of the Year

“Those who like Joyce Carol Oates will love this” dark novel of psychological suspense by the author of Mind of Winter and The Life Before Her Eyes (Kirkus Reviews). A married motel receptionist in a bleak Michigan town, Leila Murray has slipped into the habit of trading sex with strangers for money. When she meets a drifter who alternately sweet-talks and physically abuses her, it might be the wakeup call that dissuades her from a life of prostitution. Instead, she allows him to become her pimp. In this chilling, “beautifully written page-turner” (Booklist), we follow Leila’s life as she spirals out of control—and learn the darkness in her past that drives her—in “an exploration of the legacy of abuse and violence [and] an amazing first novel” (The Boston Globe). “[An] extremely powerful debut . . . Profoundly disturbing but also resonant with hope and rebirth.” —Los Angeles Times

Volume contains: 214 NY 633 (Doyle v. Hamilton Fish Corp.) 214 NY 634 (Estabrook v. Newburgh L., H. & P. Co.) 214 NY 636 (Gayetty v. Thompson) 214 NY 49 (Hall v. N.Y. Tele. Co.) 214 NY 606 (Hobart v. Town of Tully)

Running from hell isnʼt easy. Especially when someoneʼs dragging you back down into it. Belligerent, brash and always in shades of black, Ivana is hardly a lady. Hidden away by her father, sheʼs lived a normal life despite being born into the dark waters of New Yorkʼs underworld. Heʼs cold, cruel and calculating, with a proclivity for destruction. Feared by even Made Men, Vasco is the boss of the stateʼs most leachorous crime syndicate. Ivana hates his crudity and possessiveness, but she canʼt deny the way her breath hitches at his rough touch, the deep timbre of his voice, and his dark, heated gaze. Vasco hates her disobedience, her recklessness, and her chaos. To him, sheʼs only something to be tamed. And after he slips a ring on her hand, snatching away her future, she makes only one vow---to become his biggest torment.

29