Rating: 
Summary: Captivating
Review: This book shows a great journey of a young woman and her search for herself. It's cliche, but there's always the twists, and Packer does it wonderfully. She captures the characters well enough to create a beatuful picture in your mind. It's a little drawn out though very captivating.
Rating: 
Summary: Packer takes the reader on an emotional journey
Review: In her first novel The Dive From Clausen's Pier, Ann Packer shows us how complex human nature can be. As you read about 23-year-old Carrie Bell you can feel what she feels. Carrie is from a small town in Wisconsin. She longs to leave her hometown, but she doesn't really know what she wants to do. As a small town girl myself, I could relate to her yearning to leave her hometown for something bigger and more exciting. This is a theme that persists throughout the story. Also unhappy with Mike, the only boyfriend she's ever had, we find her personal journey of self-reflection just beginning when Mike becomes paralyzed after diving off a local pier. This brings to light the theme of putting others' needs before your own. Just how important is it to think of others before yourself? Is it worth your own unhappiness? The pressure is on from there.
The idea of trying to escape yourself is one that keeps coming back up in the novel and one of the reasons why it is such a page-turner. When we see the reactions of people in her town when she decides to move to New York, it is a reminder to us of how people react in different situations. It brings up the question, "What would you do?". It also makes the reader think of how judgmental people can be. The story starts to drag a little in the middle when Carrie is in New York, and the reader sometimes wonders where Packer is going with the story. When everything finally did come to an end, I can't express how disappointed I was with the way the story ended.
Rating:
Summary: Touching Story
Review: The characters really leap from the page in this one. I was drawn into this world. I found it easy to move along through the book and watch the growth of the characters.
Rating:
Summary: An all-time favorite
Review: Some reviewers here have called Carrie Bell selfish or wishy-washy. They said this book was a waste of time. I disagree. Carrie Bell is human -- as are all of the characters in this novel (and Packer never resorts to stereotypes - even for her supporting cast). Many human beings are faced with difficult and complex choices, and some take a little more time than others to figure things out. Such is the case for Carrie Bell, and following her on her emotional journey was extremely moving and well worth my while. (And the book is beautifully paced. A very quick read) Ann Packer raises questions here about the value of old friendships -- even if we feel we've outgrown them -- and the capacity we have for change. She questions the importance of independence and freedom. The value of family. The pitfalls of reinventing yourself or straying too far from what you are. She asks: Do we define what we do ... or does what we do define us? There's a lot to this novel. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: Who cares?
Review: Carrie just lets life happen to her - everyone she comes in contact with knows what she will end up doing before she does. Lots of people just let life happen around them, but it doesn't make for a good read. Her only passion is sewing, and it doesn't make for a good read either. Don't waste your time.
Rating: 
Summary: Beyond Bad
Review: I'm not sure I've ever read a book so utterly boring or encountered such unlikeable characters. The review entitled "Reality Check" has summed up the essence of the main character as an "annoying, condescending and selfish cypher." It's unclear to me why or how this book made it to the best seller's list but I suggest you save yourself the time, money & disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: Dive right in
Review: Wonderfully written, this book had me from the first sentence. I had heard so much about Ann Packer but never seemed to get around to her. Boy and I glad I did. The characters are amazing and the atmospheric descriptions, especially of New York, make you feel as though you're in the middle of things, experiencing them as they happen.But the most intriguing aspect of this stellar novel was the writing. Poetic and brillant, you could take out the characters and plot and simply have writing that is a joy to read all in itself. Also recommended: I know This Much is True, The Five People you Meet in Heaven, Bark of the Dogwood.
Rating:
Summary: The frailty of human emotion
Review: This book surprised me. I didn't know what to expect coming in, as I had only seen it in bookstores, I had never really stopped to read the inside flap or anything. The book came into my posession by accident and when I started reading it, I was amazed at the wealth of emotion and human-ness was in it. The main character, Carrie Bell will amaze you with how human she is; she is fascinated by sewing and all things color and design, she is not quite so in love with her high school sweetheart-turned fiance, and she longs to be out of her cramped small town in Wisconsin. Her fiance becomes quadriplegic during the first 30 pages of the book, turning everything around. Now she questions her love from him; the way it faded so slowly that eventually she didn't want to be with him. I won't go much farther than that for plot summary, since I don't want to spoil it. But it still asounds me, even after just finished reading it. I will say that this was an easy book to read. The pages go quickly and the writing style is very fluid and vibrant with description, but never bordering on boring or dull. It made me a bit depressed, as the subject matter was never one of happiness but instead of sorrow and regret, but I'm glad I read it. It made me appreicate what I have now, the people and relationships I hold with them. You may not come out changed from this book, but it is worth reading if you have some time. My bottomline for this book is that its moral is: "know thyself". It gets complicated after that. But read it and find out for yourself.
Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Book
Review: This is one of the best books I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Not quite but almost
Review: believeable?
If you'd planned to end a stale relationship but then your high school sweetheart and long term lover dove off a pier and suffered permanet paralysis what would you do?
I was intrigued by the conscientious decisions concept but the way the plot was executed here was less than convincing. Carrie runs away to NY to simply begin another disasterous relationship. The dialogues and situations she faced in NY don't really add anything to the story - they are like a substory and don't really render an understanding of the ending.
So, her reasons for her return to the mid-west is not developed at all but you're left to believe that maturity and a need to tie up loose ends with people she's loved her entire life is the reason for her return and that worked for me.
It's quirky and disjointed but a quick and very interesting read.
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