The mega-talented creator of Grey’s Anatomy and Scandal and executive producer of How to Get Away With Murder chronicles how saying YES for one year changed her life―and how it can change yours, too.With three hit shows on television and three children at home, the uber-talented Shonda Rhimes had lots of good reasons to say NO when an unexpected invitation arrived. Hollywood party? No. Speaking … Hollywood party? No. Speaking engagement? No. Media appearances? No.
And there was the side-benefit of saying No for an introvert like Shonda: nothing new to fear.
Then Shonda’s sister laid down a challenge: just for one year, try to say YES to the unexpected invitations that come your way. Shonda reluctantly agreed―and the result was nothing short of transformative. In Year of Yes, Shonda Rhimes chronicles the powerful impact saying yes had on every aspect of her life―and how we can all change our lives with one little word. Yes.
more
Everyone should read this book!!!! Whether you are a die heard Shonda fan or you have no clue who McDreamy is it doesn’t matter. Reading about the transformation that Shonda made is inspiring and will be a life changer for you. I cannot recommend this book enough!
I downloaded the sample of this book because Bookbub listed it in their blog post about books that could change your life. I didn’t expect to buy it but found myself laughing out loud and there are very few books that can get me cracking up like that. The writing is personable, hysterical and poignant. While I don’t think this book changed my life I did enjoy the heck out of it and I highly recommend it.
This book has been an inspiration because it has forced me out of my introvert self and being more open to new experiences. It’s about being willing to ignore the fear and just live. Some amazing things have happened since I have begun to embrace this mantra and I can say I haven’t been disappointed.
It’s been a while since I read a self help book, and I’m so glad that I picked this one! It was referred to me by my sister, so a big fat thanks to her for passing the paperback into my oh so willing hands. It reads more like a journal of Shonda’s story than it does a ‘how to’ or ‘self-help’, yet in doing so she’s teaching her readers oh so much more than she would have by saying ‘this is what you need to do’ so to speak. This way, Shonda tells an actual story – a tale – yet she’s jam packed it with beautiful insight to bettering one’s day to day life.
You see, for years Shonda let herself slip into a mundane routine filled with nothing but work work work… that, and allowing herself to stress in constantly and gain weight. Although successful in her career, Shonda was completely unhappy and living her life hiding. She hid behind really anything she could in order to stay out of the limelight. On a thanksgiving day while her sister was prepping dinner, she made a comment to Shonda about ‘never saying Yes to anything’. This comment stuck with her. She dwelled on it until she came to the realization that being an excuse maker and always saying no to everyone and everything had transformed her into misery.
At this point Shonda made a pact to herself, and even told a few friends in order to hold herself accountable that she would say yet to everything that terrified her. Sure enough within weeks she was asked to give a public speech. She forced herself to say yes despite her nearly paralyzing fear of personal publicity, all because of the promise she’d made to herself. Not only did she survive the speech, but she nailed it! (she even gives the speech in the book along with more and they’re pretty fantastic.)
But it doesn’t stop at this speech. Really it’s only a fraction, a step in the direction of Yes’ that takes her from unhappy to a woman exuberating confidence and self worth. This step turned into more steps of speeches, TV appearances including Oprah, Jimmy Kimble and more. Shonda took trips, dedicated herself more to her children than ever before, and even went from being overweight to a healthy lady in amazing shape. She takes us readers through her journey of this life transforming year with grace, attitude, opinions out the wahoo (which are hilarious BTW) and leaves us completely fixated on her. I personally will be saying Yes much much more than usual. I admire Shonda and feel like a better person after reading her tale!! Hands down 5 stars for me!
I enjoyed the way Shonda opened a window into her life and journey of self growth. Very personal & frank account of her walk.
I listened to the audiobook read by Rhimes and it was great.
Very helpful for people who want to start saying yes to everything.
I want everyone to read this book. It’s even better in audio because Shonda Rhimes reads it herself and she is amazeballs! There was so much truth and heart and just…wonderfulness packed into these pages. Two thumbs up!
This was the first book my book club read back in 2014. I loved the behind the scenes references to Grey’s and this was an appropriate first read for our club!
There’s nothing better than Shonda Rhimes reading a book to you. Maybe Shonda reading a book that she wrote, but nothing better than THAT.
I picked this book up on a recommendation from Lucy Score (thanks, Lucy!) and went into it with the intention of hearing all the wonderful things Shonda Rhimes does to dance it out, stand in the sun, and be her own person.
I didn’t go into this good expecting to learn how to dance it out or stand in the sun or be my own person–and I do think the intention matters because many of us are used to reading romantic fiction and getting an HEA out of it. Recalibrating for nonfiction memoirs can take a minute.
I went in expecting Shonda to tell me how she did all those things and how it went for her. And loved every minute of it. I just loved hearing her thoughts and perspectives, and the ways she pushed herself. It’s a great listen.
As a writer, Year of Yes captured my attention right away. Add Shonda’s witty intelligent humor to the fact that I began listening to the audiobook as I prepared Thanksgiving dinner in the wee hours of the morning, (you’ll need to read the book to understand the connection) and you’ll quickly learn why my eyes were filled with tears within the first 15 minutes of listening.
I highly recommend this book to all of my entrepreneur clients and each of them has had a similar response. This book is what you get when you combine gut-punching honesty with highly motivational stories of overcoming fears to do the impossible.
Shonda Rhimes talks about affirming her inner self as she goes from writer nerd to TV mogul. It is NOT comfortable for her.
I responded so personally to this book that I was tempted to not review it. A successful woman has to stop undermining her own success…or letting other people do it for her. I myself am going through a couple of years of removing myself from situations that are less than supportive, and learning to be more authentic and less of a people pleaser. I’ve broken down in tears more than once, going, “I don’t even know what I want.”
This is an upbeat, funny, and honest book.
Ignore the tone police hating on this book. It’s lovely, and I recommend it.
An entertaining and funny book. As an introvert, I found myself nodding my head in agreement to some of the situations. Public speaking anxiety: check. Being completely comfy, and never wanting to leave Helenaland:check. Living in my head: yep. Thank you, Ms. Rhimes for saying yes and sharing the journey.
It made me want to take my own year!
I’d give the general message Rhimes was trying to convey 4 stars, but the writing style 2.5-3. The goals she set out for herself were laudable and they made me ponder my own life and how I approach it.
Now for the complaints. She should be commended for all of her hard earned achievements, but it felt as though we readers were being force fed how wonderful she is throughout the book. The narrative was annoyingly repetitive. It felt like having lunch with one of those friends who magically always manages to steer the conversation back to her and her life. Granted, it is a book about her and her life. It just seemed like one long love letter to herself. One more complaint and I’m done: she and her family won the genetic lottery in regard to their slow aging. They don’t deserve praise for it.
Never finished it, it was sort of boring
I really liked this memoir. Shonda Rhimes is one of the best storytellers in pop culture and she tells her own story just as well.
One of my favorite books I’ve read this year. Shonda Rhimes is a magical storyteller that weaves in her world into the real world.
Inspirational, funny, entertaining, and well-written…
Read it!
If you have a pulse, please read this.
This was an amazing read, an emotionally powerful autobiography. Year of Yes is about what Shonda did, about how saying yes improved her life (which was already an incredibly successful and enviable life, but there was still room for improvement). It’s not a self-help book, yet it would be so simple to apply what she did to one’s own life and, probably, result in self-helping. This is the first book like this Shonda Rhimes has written. (Seems funny that she’s a debut author, considering that she writes all time and has won many awards for doing so. But this is her first of this kind of book.)
When she wrote that she is more comfortable with books than new situations, I felt I could relate. The part about F.O.D. — I’ve lived that. When she wrote “I make stuff up for living,” man, that’s a version of what I’ve been expressing for years. That I don’t write for this reason or that reason, I write because that’s living, that’s why I’m here, that’s the reason this soul is in this body. (Maybe the soul would have had an easier go in a different body, but perhaps it’s all just fuel for the pages.)
When Shonda equates writing to running five miles, I’ve never heard it put that way before. That really makes a lot of sense to me. And how interruptions drive a writer nuts, wow, that’s so accurate and true. “We can try to cohabitate, but if you lure me away from writing, intentionally or not, it won’t go well.” Yeah. I’ve had that conversation. I get what she meant.
There’s a part in Chapter 12 about finding your tribe, about the fear of being alone, about wanting to feel less marginalized by “peers;” I really understand what she’s talking about here. Being introverted and wanting to be alone, yet needing to feel like you aren’t alone. I seriously relate to that on such a deep level.
And then, right on the next page, she talks about NORMALIZING. How that’s what the movement should be called instead of diversifying/ needing diverse characters, books, shows, etc. I don’t know how I never thought about it this way before. She’s so right! It is about making our fictional worlds better reflections of our real ones. I really love that. I hope that, in our lifetimes, we see diversity exist so much in fiction that it does become normal, the standard.
Chapter 9, “Yes to Joining the Club,” I suggest that everyone drop what they’re doing, run out to a bookstore or library, and read this chapter right now. Maybe stop along the way to get tissues. I cried. I’m rarely ever hit that hard emotionally. Reading about the group effort of those women, I don’t know, maybe it made my heart swell until tears came out. Perhaps it is because reading that gave me hope for myself and my fellow Native Americans. Speeches like that are why I’m part of the #HeForShe movement. Bravo. I actually had to set this book down because it moved me so emotionally that I “needed a minute” to process.
“Say yes to staying conscious.” That line had me laughing so hard that my spouse thought something was wrong with me. (“J’s finally flipped, gone round the bend. Time for the whitecoats to haul him away.”) Maybe it’s extra funny because I needed a laugh. Seriously, this book is an emotional journey.
I love that, near the end of the book, she goes back to Chicago to give a voice to a statue. There’s something really deep about that, something amazing about different art forms coming together.
There’s a section (in the paperback edition I read) with color photos. They’re great and I highly recommend viewing them. There’s even one of Jenny McCarthy (Shonda’s, not the other one; this one is pro-vaccination). Even the copyright page of this book has a line of humor.
I enjoyed the book far more than I expected. I mean, it’s Shonda Rhimes, I’m already a fan, so I figured it would be good. But this was so much better than I thought. I’d suggest it to all the fans of her shows, to anyone who is “diverse” and hopes to one day be “normal” or wants someone else like you to look up to. And to anyone who has shut themselves away for any non-medical-life-and-death reason. I do like the cover. The gold silhouette of a woman jumping for joy is pretty accurate (as this book is aimed more at women, but I liked it anyway). I got this book as a gift a year ago. I thought I’d have to wait until January to read it, that it would give me step by step instructions for a year… I was wrong. Read it any time. Waiting is dumb. Waiting is an excuse. Waiting is blowing up perfectly good train tracks.
I have read other autobiographies. I’ve read other self-help type books. I’ve never read anything quite like this though. This is more. This is like when people talk about the difference between American .89 cent sliced white bread versus some other country’s small village bread baked by the elders and served fresh. And yeah, you might think “eh, bread is bread,” but then you taste it and your tongue relays to your brain “OH, THIS IS WHAT TASTEBUDS ARE FOR.” That’s the experience of reading this book. I would absolutely read another book by Shonda, if she writes one.
“My happy ending is not the same as your happy ending.” Those words of wisdom should be quoted all the time. Dozens of memes. There should be tee-shirts and mugs and other such paraphernalia. Honestly, I think she may have cracked the code to the path to world peace with that line.
Finally, I want to wish Shonda Rhimes a happy birthday on January 13.