{"product_id":"family-album-isbn-9780440124344","title":"Family Album","description":"Through forty years—from Hollywood's golden  days in World War II to the present—Faye  Price would create first  a career as a legendary actress, then a family,  and finally  she would realize her dream of becoming  one of Hollywood's first woman directors.  But  nothing was more precious to Faye than her five  children. In a changing world,  a milieu where family values are constantly challenged from without and within, the  Thayers would face  the greatest challenges and harshest test a family  can endure,  to emerge stronger, bound forever by  loyalty and love. It is only when Faye is gone  that they can each assess how far they have come, and  how important their family  album is.\u003cb\u003ePraise for Danielle Steel\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Steel is one of the best!”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eLos Angeles Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Few modern writers convey the pathos of family and material life with such heartfelt empathy.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eThe Philadelphia Inquirer\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Steel pulls out all the emotional stops. . . . She delivers!”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“What counts for the reader is the ring of authenticity.”\u003cb\u003e—\u003ci\u003eSan Francisco Chronicle\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eDanielle Steel\u003c\/b\u003e has been hailed as one of the world’s most popular authors, with over 650 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include \u003ci\u003eCountry, Prodigal Son, Pegasus,\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eA Perfect Life, Power Play, Winners, First Sight, Until the End of Time, The Sins of the Mother, \u003c\/i\u003eand other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of \u003ci\u003eHis Bright Light,\u003c\/i\u003e the story of her son Nick Traina’s life and death; \u003ci\u003eA Gift of Hope, \u003c\/i\u003ea memoir of her work with the homeless; \u003ci\u003ePure Joy, \u003c\/i\u003eabout the dogs she and her family have loved; and the children’s book \u003ci\u003ePretty Minnie in Paris.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003eChapter One\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The sun was so brilliant nearly everyone was squinting, though it  was only eleven o'clock in the morning.  The tiniest of breezes ruffled the women's  hair.  The day was so beautiful there was a kind of agony to it, an amazing silence,  and all one could hear in the silences were birds, a quiet chirping, a sudden shrieking,  and the overwhelming smell of flowers. . . lily of the valley, gardenias, freesia,  buried in a carpet of moss.  But Ward Thayer saw none of it and he seemed to hear  nothing at all.  His eyes had been closed for several minutes, and when he opened  them, he stared for the longest time, almost like a zombie, looking colorless, so  unlike the image everyone had of him. . . had had for the last forty years.  There  was nothing dashing or exciting or even handsome about Ward Thayer this morning.   He stood immobilized in the brilliant sunlight, watching nothing, his eyes closed  again, almost too tightly, he pressed his eyelids tightly together, and for a moment  he wanted never to open them again, as she had not, as she never would again.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e There  was a voice, droning softly in the distance, saying something, sounding no different  than the hum of insects buzzing near the flowers.  And he felt nothing.  Nothing.   Why? Why did he feel nothing, he asked himself? Had he felt nothing for her? Had  it all been a lie? He felt a wave of panic wash over him. . . he couldn't remember  her face. . . the way she wore her hair. . . the color of her eyes. . . his eyes  flew open brusquely, tearing the lids apart like hands that had been clasped, skin  that had once upon a time been grafted.  The sun blinded him in an instant, and he  saw only a flash of light and smelled the flowers, as a bee hummed lazily past him,  and the pastor said her name.  Faye Price Thayer.  There was a muffled popping sound  to his left and the lightning of a camera exploded in his eyes, as the woman beside  him pressed his arm.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e He looked down at her, his eyes adjusting to the light again,  and suddenly he remembered.  Everything he had forgotten was reflected in his daughter's  eyes. The younger woman looked so much like her, yet how different they were.  There  would never be another woman like Faye Thayer.  They all knew that, and he knew it  best of all.  He looked at the pretty blonde beside him, remembering it all, and  longing silently for Faye.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e His daughter stood tall and sedate.  She was plainer  than Faye had been.  Her smooth blond hair was pulled tightly into a knot, and beside  her stood a serious-looking man, who touched her arm often.  They were on their own  now, all of them, each one different, separate, yet part of a larger whole, part  of Faye. . . and of him as well.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Was she truly gone? It seemed impossible, as tears  rolled solemnly down his cheeks and a dozen photographers leapt forward to record  his pain, to put on front pages around the world.  The grieving widower of Faye Price  Thayer.  He was hers now, in death, as he had been hers in life.  They were all hers.   All of them.  The daughters, the son, the co-workers, the friends, and they were  all there to honor the memory of the woman who would never come again.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e The family  stood beside him in the front row.  His daughter Vanessa, her bespectacled young  man, and beside him, Vanessa's twin, Valerie, with hair of flame, a golden face,  a perfect black silk dress which clung to her breathtakingly, her success stamped  on her unmistakably, and beside her an equally dazzling man.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e They made such a beautiful  pair one had to stare at them, and it pleased Ward to see how much Val looked like  Faye.  He had never noticed it quite so much before, but he saw it now. . . . And  Lionel, who looked so like her too, though more quietly.  Tall and handsome and blond,  sensual, elegant, and delicate, yet at the same time proud.  He stood staring into  the distance now, remembering the others he had known and loved. . . . Gregory and  John, lost brother, treasured friend.  He thought too of how well Faye had known  Lionel, better than anyone perhaps.  She had known him better than he knew himself.  . . and as well as he himself knew Anne, standing beside him now, prettier than she  had been before, so much more confident, and still so young, in sharp contrast to  the gray-haired man who held her hand.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e They were all there in the end.  They had  come to pay homage to all that she had been.  Actress, director, legend, wife, mother,  friend.  There were those who had envied her, those she had driven too hard and wanted  too much from. Her family knew that best of all.  She had expected so much of them,  yet given so much in return, driven herself so hard, gone so far.  Ward remembered  it all as he looked at all of them, all the way back to that first time in Guadalcanal.   And now here they were, a lifetime past, and each of them remembering her as she  had been, as she once was, as she was to them.  It was a sea of faces in the bright  Los Angeles sun.  All of Hollywood had turned out for her.  A last salute, a final  smile, a tender tear, as Ward turned to glance at the family he had built with her,  all of them so strong and beautiful. . . as she had been.  How proud she would have  been to see them now, he thought, tears burning his eyes again. . . how proud they  were of her. . . finally.  It had taken a long time. . . and now she was gone. .  . it seemed impossible to believe when only yesterday. . . only yesterday they'd  been in Paris. . . the South of France. . . New York. . . Guadalcanal.","brand":"Dell","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46305276690661,"sku":"NP9780440124344","price":9.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780440124344.jpg?v=1767726692","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/family-album-isbn-9780440124344","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}