Option B (Sandberg) - Discussion Questions

Discussion Questions
We'll add publisher questions if and when they're available; in the meantime, please use our LitLovers talking points to help start a discussion for Option B … then take off on your own:

1. What do you think of Sheryl Sandberg's Option B? Do you find it enlightening? Has it helped you cope with your own grief or offer guidance for helping others? What was your experience reading the book? Did you feel uncomfortable reading some of the rawer, more intimate sections? Or did the book's candor create a more sympathetic connection between you (the reader) and Sandberg (the author)?

2. Sandberg writes about starting rituals, such as taking a moment each evening to express gratitude for something positive that happened that day. What was, in your mind, the most important or helpful advice in Option B? What struck you most or resonated with your own personal experiences? Are there suggestions or observations in the book you disagree with?

3. If you read Lean In, does Sandberg come across the same in Option B … or does she seem different? If you haven't read Lean In, how you feel about Sheryl Sandberg: what kind of person is she?

4. Sandberg acknowledges that her wealth and status insulate her from the economic insecurity many feel after loss. As one of the top executives and most accomplished women in the country, is she capable of offering advice to us more mud-bound souls (an occasional criticism of Lean In)? When, on the first anniversary of their father's death, she takes her kids to a SpaceX launch, does someone like Sandberg have something of relevance to say to the rest of us? Does wealth cushion one from despair and grief? Or, ultimately, is money irrelevant?

5. Talk about the book's title and its derivation. What is "Option A" and why is it "not available"?

6. What are the "three  P's" that, according to Martin Seligman, hinder recovery after trauma or loss? Talk about why they end up working against us when we most need comfort?

7. It can be fashionable to level scorn at our over-use of social media. But Sandberg points to Facebook as a venue to help people express their own grief or offer solace to others. What are your thoughts and experiences regarding Facebook?

(Questions by LitLovers. Please feel free to use them online or off, with attribution. Thanks.)

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