Audiobook version
Can I tell you how excited I was when I got the news that my publisher was starting work on the audiobook version of CHARLOTTE CANE?
I got hooked on audiobooks many years ago, when I started a job with a 45-minute commute by car and found myself missing all the reading I used to get done on the NYC subway! Now I listen while driving, walking, house cleaning (really, it’s the only way I can dust). I know so many other readers who also add audiobooks to their mix. Not surprising, audiobook sales were up 9% in 2025. I won’t even wade into the debate about whether listening to a book counts as reading. I’m all for enjoying books in whatever modality works for you.
Like many of you, I’m particular about the style and genre of books I listen to, and I’m even pickier about audiobook narrators. So I was delighted when my editor sent me samples from several potential narrators for CHARLOTTE CANE. It took me a while to adjust to the idea of my characters having actual voices, and then thinking about what those voices would sound like. All of the narrators I listened to were interesting and unique, but two really stood out, and I’m thrilled to announce that Hillary Huber and Gail Shalan will be narrating CHARLOTTE CANE!
Next, I received a list of uncommon words in the novel and was asked to provide the correct pronunciations. Some of the uncommon words: Viognier, Karmann Ghia, character names, and several Romanian words. (Yes, Romanian; there’s a section of the novel set in Romania. I will say no more). So I spent quite a bit of time listening to recordings of Romanian words and then trying to reproduce the pronunciation myself. It made me appreciate how much talent and skill is involved in narrating an audiobook and thankful that I don’t have to do it myself!
Good news: you can preorder CHARLOTTE CANE on audio if that’s your thing! (And Libro.fm is a great audio platform that supports indie bookstores).
BOOK RECS!
At the end of August, we try our hardest to spend at least a few days on Bailey Island, Maine, where we do nothing much but sit on porches overlooking the ocean and read. Here are my favorite Maine vacation books from this year and previous trips. (Right: proof of doing nothing but reading…and drinking tea).
Hunger and Thirst by Claire Fuller
A lonely teenager trying to survive on her own in 1980s England finds friends and family, and even a home, but when it falls apart, it does so in unimaginable and utterly terrifying ways. An unputdownable noveI. I still haven’t stopped thinking about two weeks after I finished it.
Take What you Can by Naima Coster
Two women who became friends while studying abroad in France decide to move closer to one another when they are both about to become mothers. Grief and tragedy bind them, but is that enough to hold them together now? I loved these two messy and complicated characters and didn’t want the story to end. Plus, scenes of Paris and Provence (and Brooklyn).
Fellowship Point by Alice Elliott Dark
A lifelong friendship between two women now in their 80s and their attempt to save the summer homes built by their Quaker ancestors on the coast of Maine. An epic story about friendship that lets you live deep within it for a while. I love any opportunity to read about older women whose stories don’t get told very often. I recommend this book all the time!
A retired Chicago police detective moves to a remote Irish village hoping to live a quiet life, but he’s soon brought into a missing person case he can’t avoid. One of my favorite Tana French novels, which is saying a lot. This is the first in a trilogy, and I can’t wait to read the other two.
A tragic history literally haunts a brother and sister (and the wife/best friend) who move back to their family’s estate on the coast of Maine so the brother can run for Senate. The perfect thriller for our AI age. What counts as real and true, and how do we know the difference?