Meg Mason

We are here thanks to the team at Specsavers.

Today on He Read, She Read, we are going to be discussing Sophie Standing There by Meg Mason.

Josh, I know you're eating popcorn right now, but...

Quick question for you straight off the bat.

Had you read a Meg Mason book before this

one? Yeah.

Oh, no, no.

said.

What book is likely to cause the most disagreement among your customers, do you think?

I don't know well enough, but I think non-fiction is always going to cause a bit of tension you know it can be very polarizing depending on what the opinion is um I so there are a couple of authors who I have ordered who I think are real Marmite ones um which are Sally Rooney I love her but I think people either love or really despise her work sadly um and Meg Mason so I um Sophie Standing there is her newest one and I have ordered a copy in but I Having seen the reactions on social media, I think it could go either way.

It seems to be a bit of a Marmite book, so to speak.

What's the first book you'll absolutely stock on your shelves? What was in that first order you thought, right, that's number one, that's going in there?

So the ailment is friendship drift, you know, when you sort of have that quiet deterioration of a friendship relationship that I think we all experience in our lives, actually.

And this is Sorrow and Bliss by Meg Mason.

And it's about a character called Martha.

Martha's life is complicated by her mental health, her family dynamics, and a sense of basically being stuck.

That is very cool.

This is a random question, but I was just talking to Meg Mason last week and she said, I was with this whole group of writers and they said that we discovered that all of us as little kids, we all had these little quirks and we discovered that we were all into little miniature things.

Like even the boys had doll houses.

But

Her book's also about loneliness, isn't it? It's about loneliness at a different stage of life.

So she is the author and journalist, Meg Mason.

We're so thrilled to have her on because...

We did a

all oh book your tickets

get your friends together and go and see it i think it's filmed at various locations around the world but it's loads it's never been seen before so it runs as a concert so you can pop your t-shirts on go and follow george but i think you would need to book your tickets now because it is going to book up quickly going to book up at the old i must be around the country as well it's everywhere yeah it'll be everywhere of course it's everywhere it's george

Well, I think that set us up nicely to meet our special book club guest, Meg Mason.

She'll be joining us after this quick commercial break.

So I've listened to some amazing books.

I've listened to Sophie Standing There, which is the new book from Meg Mason, who wrote Sorrow and Bliss, which was a massive, um, bestseller I think back in 2023 or 2024 perhaps.

Anyway, Sophie Standing There is, is very, is a very different, uh, novel, but well worth reading.

It's a really, really great character study of a very, very appealing, likable character, Sophie, and her, um, tribulations as she navigates life post a, a divorce.

And let me tell you, when Ann Patchett recommends a book, you stop what you were doing and you pay attention.

She is highlighting Sophie Standing There by Meg Mason.

Ann Patchett's endorsement carries immense undeniable gravity in the literary world.

She is a master, a true champion of high caliber literary fiction that dissects the intricate nuances of human relationships.

She really is.

She owns a bookstore herself, Parnassus Books in Nashville, so she reads everything.

If she is backing Meg Mason, it signals that this book is going to leave a permanent mark on the reader.

Patchett's description of Sophie Standing There is very brief, but it hits like a freight train.

Uh, number two is The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster.

Uh, number three is Sophie Standing There by Meg Mason.

And at number four, the very last book of this episode is Six Stories A Semester by various artists, various authors.

[laughs]

Moving on to book number three.

Three.

That is Sophie Standing There, by Meg Mason.

Uh, this is a novel.