Year of Yes: How to Dance It Out, Stand in the Sun and Be Your Own Person

Gather initial thoughts and broad opinions about the book.

1. What did you know about Shonda Rhimes and/or the television shows she has written and produced prior to reading her memoir? How did the book change or confirm your perceptions?

2. What specific actions, steps, or mindsets make Rhimes’s Year of Yes a success?

3. Happiness and unhappiness are important topics throughout the memoir. How do you define “happiness?” How is your definition similar to or different from Rhimes’s? How does her definition fluctuate throughout the course of the Year of Yes?

Encourage readers to connect the book’s themes and characters with their personal experiences.

1. What specific tactics or strategies does Rhimes employ in the course of improving her life would you like to emulate? What is it about her approach that would make this specific change work for you too?

2. Rhimes often reflects on the patterns and behaviors she adopted during adolescence that have impacted the person she becomes as an adult. Consider your own childhood or teen years: what patterns or traits from your youth are integral to the person you are today? Are these helpful or harmful traits?