It’s another month, which means another Reese’s Book Club pick.
This October, Reese Witherspoon has selected Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason.
Meg, originally a Kiwi who now lives in Sydney with her husband and two daughters, didn’t initially believe that Reese had chosen her book – in fact, she tells New Idea that she “never” expected it to happen.
“I remember, on the phone, asking my editor over and over if she was sure. As though maybe there had been a mix up,” she tells us.
“When she managed to convince me, I was truly so shocked, and completely spacey for the rest of the day… walking into furniture, that kind of thing!”
Sophie, Standing There tells the fictional story of Sophie Pattison, a freelance sound technician for literary festivals.
As Sophie deals with loneliness, she discovers an author who she comes to adore – and while thinking she’d never come to her festival, maybe she just might.
Meg tells us that when she finished writing the novel, her US editor said they would send it to Reese Witherspoon‘s book club for possible selection.
“I was like, ‘Ok, sure’ and put it out of my head as something to ridiculous to think about. Such, I had truly forgotten about it by the time she emailed me, a month or so before the book came out, to say, ‘Can you call me? I have some news…’” she says.
Meg reveals that she “laughed out loud on the train” when she saw Reese Witherspoon‘s Book Club’s announcement video that she posted on Instagram, in which Reese said she feels like she knew Meg because she’s read all her books, and maybe they could be friends.
“When you’re convinced you and the author would be best friends,” the text on the video reads.
She tells that she’s going to use Reese’s selection as “permission to spend time living and imagining out her next novel” before she writes it.
“My work ethic has never let me take any time to just think, I always have to be at my desk, forcing myself even when I have nothing to say, so I’m excited to have a little bit of space and time.”
