Victor Morgan’s entire life has been in the limelight. Groomed by his fierce mother as a piano prodigy, intent on using him to build a legacy for the Morgan name. But legacies require the utmost in care. Any little disaster can cause a mountain of problems. After a 17th birthday party ends in catastrophe, a fight with his parents sends Victor out into the world for the first time on his own. With his Academy team and Sang by his side, it’s everything he’s wanted for years. It’s his time to get out from under his parents’ oppressive control and finally be himself. But Victor is a local celebrity in the Charleston community. His name and face have been everywhere. His every move is noticed. When his actions lead to the risk of a very public exposure of himself and his team, including thwarting Sang’s chances at remaining a Ghost Bird, Victor realizes the life his mother built may jeopardize everything. The Morgan name may just be his downfall. There may be no escape. The only way to save Sang and his team might be to give up what he really wants more than anything: to finally be the real Victor Morgan. The Academy, Verismo

With an agoraphobic mother and a barely-there father, Sang abhors the isolation keeping her in the shadows. The only thing Sang craves is a fresh start and to be accepted as ordinary by her peers, because for her being different meant being cast out alone. When her family moves to a new school district, Sang infiltrates a group of boys nearly perfect in every way. Grateful for an influence outside of her parents’ negativity, she quickly bonds with the boys, hoping to blend in and learn from them what it means to have a natural relationship with friends. Only the boys have secrets of their own and they’ll do anything to keep her safe from the knowledge of the mysterious Academy that they've sworn allegiance to. Bit by bit, Sang discovers that her friends are far from the normalcy she expected. Will her loyalty change when she's forced to remain in the dark, or will she accept that she's traded one house of secrets for another? Meet Kota, Victor, Silas, Nathan, Gabriel, Luke and North in a story about differences and loyalty, truth and mystery, friendships and heart-throbbing intimacy. The Academy, ever vigilant.

The Academy: Ghost Bird series in a different look at the very beginning. Read Introductions with a whole new perspective--the boys'.Luke Taylor can't seem to ever relate to his brother, North. They're like night and day: North is rigid and intense where Luke is playful and a dreamer, his head often in the clouds. Being around each other too long can be difficult. The Academy and Luke's friends helped to bring them together, and Luke will be forever grateful, but North is just no fun sometimes. Luke can't wait for the new job at the high school this year. He's eager to expand his friendship circle...and maybe having a project to focus on will help North blow off some steam.When the Academy hires the team on a small side job, Luke and North are forced to stick together. The brothers are on the job, but they struggle to communicate and work together.The rest of the team are reluctant and dragging their feet on their current mission. Something about a girl having trouble at home. Who is this Sang Sorenson and how can one shy, mysterious girl turn a dedicated Academy team upside down nearly overnight? The brothers need to find out. But if they can't come together, they not only risk losing her but their differences might just tear the entire team apart.

Kayli Winchester is on the run. Chased out of the hospital when Alice returns with a warning that she'll be coming for Kayli soon. Emergency protocol is initiated. Axel, Raven, Corey, Brandon, and Marc are preparing to run themselves. They need to separate from the Academy to protect everyone from the danger. Kayli and the Academy team will do whatever they can to protect their families and friends. They may have to leave Charleston forever to escape Alice's wrath. However, Alice proves she can be everywhere at once. She's aligned with powerful forces, a group possibly more powerful than the Academy, with corrupt police and officials on their side. No one is safe. No one can be trusted. When people go missing, the police are pointing fingers at Axel and the others.Just when Axel and the rest of the team are coming to understand their own complicated romantic relationships with Kayli, they're faced with the ultimate realization: staying together could get them all killed.There's only one way to handle this: Break all the rules, get to Alice, and ensure she'll never be able to exact revenge again. The consequences will be severe. Success could mean ejection from the Academy. Complete ex-communication. Family will be torn apart. And worse, the team might be forced to disband forever. Everything is at stake. Not even the Academy is prepared for how this will go down. The entire organization may not survive. Will Kayli?

From USA TODAY Bestselling Author, C. L. Stone, read First Kiss, the tenth book in The Academy Ghost Bird Series. The time has finally come for Sang Sorenson to be formally introduced to the Academy. Protocol dictates the boys keep the details of Sang's official introduction to the Academy a secret from her. The only thing they can advise her to do is to work on what will become her mantra: She is determined to stay with her team, no matter what. Despite her wishes, however, the boys are second-guessing her place with them, concerned for her safety. With dangers all around and threats closing in, some of the boys are questioning if this is the right time to bring her to meet the Academy at all. Sang is challenged with being the brave face among them and instilling the confidence needed to keep her with them. However, in order to appear compliant with the Academy's rules, she has to be willing to listen and try their suggestions. As the boys have suspected and feared, the council wants to see how she'll work with a different team. An all-girl team. She has no choice but to go along with the proposal or risk losing a shot at the Academy. But when the Academy's inner world is revealed to her, Sang knows that she's finally found her place-somewhere she belongs-and she sees a future with them. The deeper she gets, the more she sees how she can make a difference. Learning what she is capable of and the impact she can have, she feels obligated to help. There's so few girls, and they need her. The guys try to stick to their plan, but every team must pay their debts, and the cost of keeping her might be more than any of them can afford. It's up to Sang alone to prove to the Academy where she truly belongs-but can she resist the call of a new team that needs her? The Academy, Inside The time has finally come for Sang Sorenson to be formally introduced to the Academy. Protocol dictates the boys keep the details of Sang's official introduction to the Academy a secret from her. The only thing they can advise her to do is to work on what will become her mantra: She is determined to stay with her team, no matter what. Despite her wishes, however, the boys are second-guessing her place with them, concerned for her safety. With dangers all around and threats closing in, some of the boys are questioning if this is the right time to bring her to meet the Academy at all. Sang is challenged with being the brave face among them and instilling the confidence needed to keep her with them. However, in order to appear compliant with the Academy's rules, she has to be willing to listen and try their suggestions. As the boys have suspected and feared, the council wants to see how she'll work with a different team. An all-girl team. She has no choice but to go along with the proposal or risk losing a shot at the Academy. But when the Academy's inner world is revealed to her, Sang knows that she's finally found her place-somewhere she belongs-and she sees a future with them. The deeper she gets, the more she sees how she can make a difference. Learning what she is capable of and the impact she can have, she feels obligated to help. There's so few girls, and they need her. The guys try to stick to their plan, but every team must pay their debts, and the cost of keeping her might be more than any of them can afford. It's up to Sang alone to prove to the Academy where she truly belongs-but can she resist the call of a new team that needs her?

With great narrative inventiveness and emotional amplitude, Allan Gurganus gives us artistic Manhattan in the wild 1980s, where young artists--refugees from the middle class--hurl themselves into playful work and serious fun. Our guide is Hartley Mims Jr., a Southerner whose native knack for happiness might thwart his literary ambitions. Through his eyes we encounter the composer Robert Christian Gustafson, an Iowa preacher's son whose good looks constitute both a mythic draw and a major limitation, and Angelina "Alabama" Byrnes, a failed deb, five feet tall but bristling with outsized talent. These friends shelter each other, promote each other's work, and compete erotically. When tragedy strikes, this circle grows up fast, somehow finding, at the worst of times, the truest sort of family. Funny and heartbreaking, as eventful as Dickens and as atmospheric as one of Fitzgerald's parties, Plays Well with Others combines a fable's high-noon energy with an elegy's evening grace. Allan Gurganus's celebrated new novel is a lovesong to imperishable friendship, a hymn to a brilliant and now-vanished world.

'Cities in Transition' looks at the complex yet enduring relationship between cinema and the city, discussing how early cinema, digital technology and changing urban geographies have all impacted upon notions and representations of the modern city.