The Year of Yes
by Maria Dahvana Headley (Goodreads author!)
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other reviews (showing 1-20 of 423)
Read in January, 2008
recommended to Leah by:
Peter
The premise is very interesting: a young women decides that her standards for dating are too high (and thusly leading to her overall unhappiness and lack of love). She decides that, for a year, she will abandon all of her ideals and simply say 'yes' to every man (and woman!) who asks her out.
The problem with the books premise is, of course, a sort-of catch-22. In one sense, The Year of Yes is empowering to read as a single woman: to see another woman throw caution to the wind for love and ha...more
The problem with the books premise is, of course, a sort-of catch-22. In one sense, The Year of Yes is empowering to read as a single woman: to see another woman throw caution to the wind for love and ha...more
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Read in November, 2007
I enjoyed the style of this book: twitchy at times, often witty, Headley has a nice voice for storytelling. Quick paced, just like the city in which she lived in, the book tells the story of a girl bumping around, meeting and unmeeting people, each making some kind of impression on her outlook. The point isn't that she dated a string of strange people, that she met her husband in the end, although this did tie in with her preferred happily-ever-after scenario, but instead, that she opened up ...more
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Read in May, 2008
recommends it for:
No One
My book club chose this with the expectation of a fun, light read as we approach warmer weather.
At the time of this writing Headley, an NYU student, decides to spend a year saying "yes" to all offers of dates for a year. As one would guess, she ends up dating a lot of weirdoes. Headley's writing gave me the impression that she's a smart-alecky know-it-all who's desperately trying to flaunt how intelligent she is. She certainly lacks commonsense at every turn. Her over-the-top...more
At the time of this writing Headley, an NYU student, decides to spend a year saying "yes" to all offers of dates for a year. As one would guess, she ends up dating a lot of weirdoes. Headley's writing gave me the impression that she's a smart-alecky know-it-all who's desperately trying to flaunt how intelligent she is. She certainly lacks commonsense at every turn. Her over-the-top...more
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Read in January, 2008
The author is my cousin who I haven't seen since she was one. I picked it up in a voyeuristic sort of way, wondering what she would say about her family, particularly her father who was my first cousin, who I also only met a few times. He recently committed suicide and I know so little about him and what happened, why he became a total recluse. Maria's stories about her father made me cringe, his hurtful, thoughtless words that stung her enough she chose to include them, to inform the reader as ...more
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Read in November, 2007
recommends it for:
people looking for love
I had high hopes for this book because of the heavy promotion in magazines, on tv, and word of mouth. It wasn't what I had expected. I expected it to be a little more sociological and analytical about attraction, relationships, etc. Instead, it was styled as a memoir. However, Headley had trouble finding her voice and deepening her introspection. Rather than a memoir, it read like a novel written in the first person. I wanted her to switch to the third person so that I could get more into ...more
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Read in April, 2008
recommended to Molly by:
the book salerecommends it for: snotty hyper self-involved self-proclaimed smarties who like reading about people like them
The author has read many, many, many books. Philosophical books. High literature. Important works. Shakepeare this. Sartre that. And yet, there's no reason for me to be telling you this, because the author references at least three of these "smart books" that she's read on every page. She's SO smart, and she wants you to know it. But you know what her fatal flaw is? We don't care if you're smart Maria. The book isn't about whether you're smart. It's about how you said yes to every date...more
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Read in March, 2008
Even though I'm completely irritated by this book, I'm still going to keep reading it. The premise is hilarious and really quite inspiring in a way, but I had no idea there were so many WEIRD people in the world. And the decisions she makes...well, let's just say that they're not ones I would make. And I'm getting a little tired of the references to French literature and other high-flying fields that I know nothing about. Nevertheless, I want to know who she meets next...
*update* I quit readin...more
*update* I quit readin...more
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Read in December, 2007
This book came up as a suggestion in one of my bookclubs a year or so ago...where it was soundly rejected since it was still only available in hardcover at the time. Then this past December it was selected as the monthly pick in a different book club.
It seemed like a fun concept for a memoir-- the author was sick of not finding Mr. Right and decided that for a year she would say "Yes" to anyone who asked her out. The author was witty and there were some funny bits to the memoir......more
It seemed like a fun concept for a memoir-- the author was sick of not finding Mr. Right and decided that for a year she would say "Yes" to anyone who asked her out. The author was witty and there were some funny bits to the memoir......more
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I so wanted to like this book. The concept is great and the author is a undoubtedly a great talent. However, she's also so freakin' in love with her giant literary brain and apparently hotness that I had a hard time liking her. That's a problem when you're reading a memoir. there were times when I laughed out loud but more often I was groaning inwardly at her meek tries to be charmingly self-depreciating. Self-depreciation only works when you actually think it's kinda true. Her attempts read li...more
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Read in May, 2007
I enjoyed this book simply because it was so far outside of anything I would ever want to experience!
At the age of 20, the author was living in NYC. In the hopes of finding true love, she decided that for an entire year, she would go out with ANYONE who asked her. (She did put a FEW limits on this.)
She went out with some truly bizarre guys, some of whom you'd pretty much only meet in a place like NYC!
She did end up finding a prize, but not in New York.
The one thing I found disturbing ...more
At the age of 20, the author was living in NYC. In the hopes of finding true love, she decided that for an entire year, she would go out with ANYONE who asked her. (She did put a FEW limits on this.)
She went out with some truly bizarre guys, some of whom you'd pretty much only meet in a place like NYC!
She did end up finding a prize, but not in New York.
The one thing I found disturbing ...more
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Read in May, 2007
recommends it for:
women who have ever lived in new york city.
I've been feeling rather uninspired and closed off lately, and on the cover of the paperback version of this book, it said "this book makes you want to be young and in new york city," and that was exactly what I needed. I don't know that I'd go so extreme as to spend a year taking dates from every man I ever meet, but it definitely made me have an open mind about dates and dating. A lot of the dates she accepted didn't lead to romance, but a good story and a strange friendship, so perh...more
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Read in January, 2007
I think I thought this was something else, and while I finished reading it, I was skimming pretty heavily. She has a chatty, breezy style that I enjoyed (but that I didn't find as nearly as novel as all the reviewers seemed to--perhaps they should haul themselves into the new millenium and read a few blogs, because it was just that sort of style) but ultimately, I just wasn't all that terribly interested in the dating trials of an NYU student. Been there, done that, and there's a reason why it's...more
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So far so good. I'm not sure if this book falls into the "Chick Lit" category, but if so, it does a good job of legitimizing the genre by portraying the experiences of a young woman without relying on romance book style drama. Having said that . . . if women respond to romance book style drama, which they (I) do, then we (I) should not scoff at or be embarrassed by the genre. Similarly, if women respond to stressful situations with tears, they should not have to apologize for it and be...more
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Read in June, 2007
A very funny book. I think I actually laughed out loud half a dozen times.
Headley describes her love affair with New York and the copious men that walked in and out of her life in a way that was highly entertaining, but made me a) never want to live in New York, and b) not want to date the men in New York.
I was kind of disappointed by the ending, which wrapped up everything too quickly. She falls in love and finds her future husband all in the last chapter! It was too contrived. Otherw...more
Headley describes her love affair with New York and the copious men that walked in and out of her life in a way that was highly entertaining, but made me a) never want to live in New York, and b) not want to date the men in New York.
I was kind of disappointed by the ending, which wrapped up everything too quickly. She falls in love and finds her future husband all in the last chapter! It was too contrived. Otherw...more
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Read in January, 2005
A young single female in New York city can't find a man. She decides that she is too picky. For one year, she will say yes to anyone that asks her out - male, female, homeless, old, young, whatever.
While the premise sounds cute, the stories are so far out there and she meets so many weirdos that I found it hard to believe. Maybe I live in a dream world and want to belive people can't be that weird. That's fine. If people are really like the people she dates in this book, I want to stay in my...more
While the premise sounds cute, the stories are so far out there and she meets so many weirdos that I found it hard to believe. Maybe I live in a dream world and want to belive people can't be that weird. That's fine. If people are really like the people she dates in this book, I want to stay in my...more
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recommended to Jody by:
read about it in reviews
recommends it for: no one
recommends it for: no one
I was really looking forward to reading this. When I finally did, I have to say that the author was so full of herself that at times I couldn't believe how egotistical she was. She comes off as "lowering herself" to say yes to all the grateful men who shall come running to her now who were once on a lower caste, so to speak,and had no hope of ever touching her flawless body. I don't know, at times it was an interesting book but she just annoyed me too much with her narcissism.
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this is another chronicle of a strange and possibly pointless experience. the author decided to say yes to anyone who asked her out for a year. there are some amusingly weird experiences, but i got a bit sick of her writing style. she seemed to be trying too hard to come up with amusing turns of phrase. plus, i had trouble taking her worries about being alone for the rest of her life seriously, given that she was like 20 and had no shortage of dates.
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Read in February, 2008
One of my college professors knows the author, so that's only 3 degrees of separation. And I like the idea of saying yes in life, even if I'm not dating.
I really enjoyed this humorous memoir. Lots of food for thought, particularly after listening to "Think Out Loud" on OPB about the recent trend of fictionalized memoirs. This is certainly written from the author's point of view with a healthy dose of poetic license, but I throughly enjoyed it.
I really enjoyed this humorous memoir. Lots of food for thought, particularly after listening to "Think Out Loud" on OPB about the recent trend of fictionalized memoirs. This is certainly written from the author's point of view with a healthy dose of poetic license, but I throughly enjoyed it.
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So this books sounded good in theory. A woman decides that for one year she will accept date from anyone who asks her, man or woman, homeless crazy person, 60 year old man who does not speak English, it doesn't matter, she'll date them. I found the author annoying and a lot of the book ridiculous. I wanted to finish is (or maybe I just wanted it to end!) so I figured I'd give it 2 stars, but really not that great.
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Book club pick for August 12, 2007. Another in the line of "project books," this one is enjoyable and well-written, if not particularly memorable. Sadly for me, I read it immediately after another year-long project summary/autobiography, "Julie and Julia," which I felt was by far a better book. I'd like to read a book about Headley's childhood, and I recommend "The Year of Yes" as an enjoyable read, but I doubt I'll keep my copy.
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