The Year of Yes

this was well written but i expected more from it. i wasn't looking for funny stories of terrible dates and embarrassing moments, foibles in love. i was looking for a changing capacity to be open to new ideas, experiences, people. this is in there, but it's largely buried under the rest of the stories of bad dates. which probably makes for a more popular book, but one with less depth. i also wasn't looking for her to give us a happily ever after (i mean, i'm glad she has it, i just wanted the point of her year of saying yes to be more for her personal growth, and not a desperate search for love.) as far as the romance goes. still it was well written, and has the best note/foreword in any memoir i've read:

"This book has been show more reconstructed from memory. My memory. Subject to vagaries, hangovers, emotional meltdowns, and the occasional unrequited vendetta. Some of the people in this book are gonna be happy about this, and some of you aren't. I've tried to be kind where I could be, and if I couldn't be entirely kind while still telling the truth, at least I've edited some of your bad dialogue and made you wittier than you were."

so, i wanted more from it, but i enjoyed her writing and would be interested in seeing what her plays are like. show less

What is it with NYC girls going crazy, trying something for a year and then writing a book? This one was not bad, but I couldn't help feel that I'd read it before with a cooking theme. Also, too much manufactured drama, but good for her, she found her man (only a slight eye roll here)

I heard about this book when I saw an interview with the author on TV. She came across as warm, funny, and talked about how saying yes opened her life to such wonderful things. The book is a bit different. She does a great job showing how her dysfunctional upbringing made it hard for her to have stable relationships. She also goes through the emotional pulls of those relationships, and how they affected her. I didn't like her choices, and there were many times when she seemed to be more of an observer than a participant. On the other hand, I remember being in my early 20s, and a lot of my relationship choices were similarly adrift.

Headley is an excellent writer, and I enjoyed the book. The one complaint I have is that the successful show more relationship, with her husband, referred to in the book as The Playwright, gets really short shrift. She describes their meeting, and it is the only part that seems fake, mannered rather than authentic. (She sensed a deep sadness in him, hidden by his professional smile. Yuck.) Later, as an aside, she mentions that they were writing letters back and forth, and he had become a friend. How did that happen? When? Then, boom! Happy ending! I understand that her husband may not want the details of their relationship out there, especially since he was married to the mother of his children at the time. But this was the one part of the book that felt less than honest, and it stood out against the rest of her writing. show less

This was entertaining, but I wasn't expecting going into it that the author would be so young. Throwing aside expectations at age 20 isn't as difficult or remarkable as someone undertaking the same project at, say, age 40, if for no other reason than a woman of the latter age probably wouldn't be asked out 12 times in every block of the city.

Her age was a big issue for me, throughout the book and especially at the end. Yeah, she fell in love... but it's really, really not the same to be 21 and meet your knight in shining armor after kissing a lot of frogs as it is when you're older and you kind of *have* to settle a little bit more.

It looked interesting so I bought it.

Maria is a crazy woman on a single minded journey for new romantic experiences. She decides every and anybody will be a valid option for a date, once they ask. Naturally this makes for a range of extraordinary experiences...

The one I couldn't deal with was the kissing the vagrant, I don't care if he looked like Jimi Hendirx.

But I couldn't put it down, I understood her attraction to her roommate, and some of her emotions even if I didn't agree with her choices.

Quick fun read.

It's not a big story or a happy story or even an important story or, I hope, a common story, but I liked it. Maria, after years of experiencing romance horror stories, decides to accept every invitation for a date for the next year. And she winds up on some doozies. Fun. (I've decided to name a new genre, a genre that seems to be popular right now: the challenge book. Into this category, I'd place Julie and Julia, The Know-It-All, and this book. I like this genre.)

This reminded me of 'A Thousnd Days in Venice'. That same neurotic voice. It is entertaining and has a certain humanity to it which is endearing - I loved many of the characters she meets and they are described, on the whole, as real, interesting, valid people. However, the flow just didn't seem to be there.

And the thing that annoyed me the most was that the acknowledgements at the beginning tell you how the book is going to end - I hate that.