Ann Packer, Author . Knopf $24 (384p) ISBN 978-0-375-41282-0
Packer's engrossing debut novel begins without ostentation. On Memorial Day, Carrie Bell and her fiancé, Mike Mayer, drive out to Clausen's Pier for their annual ritual, a picnic with their friends, a trip they make the way a middle-aged
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Ann Packer, Author . Knopf $24.95 (352p) ISBN 978-0-375-41281-3
Packer follows her well-received first novel, The Dive from Clausen’s Pier
, with a richly nuanced meditation on the place of friendship in women’s lives. Liz and Sarabeth’s childhood friendship deepened following Sarabeth’s...
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Ann Packer, Author Chronicle Books $9.95 (224p) ISBN 978-0-8118-0629-9
Packer's stories feature 30-something men and women who wake up one morning to find their lives have taken quite unexpected, and not really desirable, turns. In ``Babies,'' unmarried Virginia pines away on the sidelines as her co-workers blossom...
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Ann Packer, Knopf, $24.95 (240p) ISBN 978-1-4000-4404-7
Packer's sterling collection is framed by two novellas. In the opener, "Walk for Mankind," teenager Richard Appleby describes his bittersweet relationship with Sasha Horowitz, a rebellious, risk-taking 14-year-old, who has a clandestine affair with...
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Ann Packer. Scribner, $26.99 (448p) ISBN 978-1-4767-1045-7
Packer (The Dive from Clausen’s Pier) begins her well-crafted family saga from the ground up with pediatrician Bill Blair’s Portola Valley, Calif., land purchased in 1954. Bill marries Penny, a young woman eager to have children—but she didn’t count
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Ann Packer, read by multiple narrators. S&S Audio, unabridged, 12 CDs, 13 hrs., $39.99 ISBN 978-1-4423-8387-6
In 1954, pediatrician Bill Blair buys three acres of land in California and marries his girlfriend, Penny. They have four children. Dissatisfied as a housewife and mother, Penny moves into the shed, becomes an artist, and eventually abandons the...
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Ann Packer, read by Fred Sanders, Cassandra Campbell, Rebecca Lowman, Kathe Mazur, Mark Deakins, and Kirsten Potter. Random House Audio, unabridged, six CDs, 7.5 hrs., $35 ISBN 978-0-307-87792-5
Six narrators perform this collection of short stories with compassionate, sensitive readings. The standout is Kirsten Potter, whose wry, ironic tone perfectly fits her narration as a woman recalling her quirky family history as she plays peacemaker
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