Sophie, Standing There
Cut along the dashed lines and pass the cards around the table.
Where did you read most of this one, and did you have a particular blanket, chair or mug involved? Set the scene for us.
Was there a sentence that made you laugh out loud in a room where you were supposed to be quiet? Read it to us if you flagged it.
The title has someone simply standing there. When in your own life have you felt like you were standing still while everything moved around you, and what eventually got you walking again?
Mason writes families that love each other imperfectly and loudly. Which family dynamic in this book felt most like yours, and did that make it comforting to read or a bit tender to touch?
This is a book that finds comedy inside sadness. How did that mix sit with you emotionally? Did the humour feel like relief, or like a sore spot being pressed?
Was there a small moment of ordinary kindness in this book that stayed with you more than any of the big ones? What was it about that moment?
By the time you closed the book, did you feel more forgiving of yourself or less? Talk about what in Sophie's story did that to you, without giving away where she lands.
Mason seems interested in whether people can be known and loved at the same time. Over the whole arc of this book, what did it make you believe about being truly seen by someone? Keep the final pages for us to feel ourselves.