Summary of Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project is a memoir of the author's year-long experiment to see if she could maximize her happiness. Rubin had plenty of reasons to be satisfied with her life. She was married to the love of her life and the mother of two children. She had transitioned from law to a fulfilling writing career. Yet one afternoon while riding on a public bus, she had a sudden awareness of how quickly life passes. Afraid that she might wake up one day and feel like she wasted her life, Rubin asked herself: What do I really want? The answer was simple: to be happy. Although she had a wonderful life, she also had a strong sense that she could be happier. Rubin didn't want to do anything drastic, like leave her family or go on an overseas sabbatical. Instead, she decided to dedicate twelve months to increasing her own...