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3.02 AVERAGE
3.02 AVERAGE
I thought this book was so funny and even inspiring. A lot of what she wrote resonated with me and I recommend it to anyone who is stuck in a rut, in dating or otherwise.
This is the memoir of a young woman who decided that her method for choosing a potential boyfriend was not working since they all ended up being losers. So she decides that for a whole year, she will say yes to a date with anyone that asks her. She ends up going out with a wide variety of people including a millionaire who still lives with his mother, a homeless guy, a married man, etc.
I like her attitude about saying yes, but she really did end up in what could have been unsafe situations. However, I also think she had a lot of people asking because she was in her very early 20's and was in NYC.
I like her attitude about saying yes, but she really did end up in what could have been unsafe situations. However, I also think she had a lot of people asking because she was in her very early 20's and was in NYC.
This book is 275 pages of masturbatory, pathological nonsense, an ill-conceived love letter to herself that should have stayed scrawled by ironic quill in Maria Dahvana Headley's coffee-stained moleskine journal. Maria Dahvana Headley has tried to convince the audience how incredible she is and succeeded only in irritating and enraging me.
This is the most self-indulgent, ridiculous, racist, appallingly idiotic, pretentious, and misguided memoir ever written. The shaky and dubious premise aside, the writing is simply awful and I can't imagine how this was ever picked up, let alone passed to press. There is no pace, no transition, no clear idea at any given moment what or when or why or how exactly anything is going on. By ranting and raving about all the unsuitable men she dated prior to saying "yes", she has failed to demonstrate that she has ever said "no" to anyone. However, despite reading the endless lists of her supposed virtues, supposed intellectualism, and rambling, foolish descriptions of her supposedly undeniable "exotic" looks ("olive skin and brown hair"; "curvy"; "uncontrollable smile"), I highly doubt that she ever managed to attract enough men for saying "no" to be noteworthy--which is doubtless how she found the time to pen this shit in the first place.
This is the most self-indulgent, ridiculous, racist, appallingly idiotic, pretentious, and misguided memoir ever written. The shaky and dubious premise aside, the writing is simply awful and I can't imagine how this was ever picked up, let alone passed to press. There is no pace, no transition, no clear idea at any given moment what or when or why or how exactly anything is going on. By ranting and raving about all the unsuitable men she dated prior to saying "yes", she has failed to demonstrate that she has ever said "no" to anyone. However, despite reading the endless lists of her supposed virtues, supposed intellectualism, and rambling, foolish descriptions of her supposedly undeniable "exotic" looks ("olive skin and brown hair"; "curvy"; "uncontrollable smile"), I highly doubt that she ever managed to attract enough men for saying "no" to be noteworthy--which is doubtless how she found the time to pen this shit in the first place.
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
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.)
(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.)
A fun memoir of Headley's young adulthood in New York. Headley decides to accept every single date invitation she receives for a year. Her attitude is refreshing, her gameness amusing, and the results are almost predictably heartwarming.
Maria tells about the year when she said yes to whomever asked her out. A homeless man, a 70 year old man who spoke no English, a dogwalker--she names them all without names--The Actor, The Rockstar, Dogboy. And tells us fairly honestly about the problems with her--and the problems with them. I thought it was interesting and funny.
I am also currently reading Headley's second book, and I cannot square the fact that this is the same author. This book gets two stars only because of massively amusing schaudenfreude about the poor decisions she makes in her "year of yes." The writing is terribly overwrought, and it reeks of somebody desperate to show how incredibly clever and witty she is. It's a relief to be done with this book.
What do you get when a woman from rural America decides one year while studying in New York that her answer to any reasonable question should be yes? This book. Sex and the City meets reality. Instead of coming up with pseudonyms for many of the characters she uses nicknames and honestly her soul searching seemed to be more attempting to justify herself rather than examining the issues.
Honestly by the end of it I didn't care.
Honestly by the end of it I didn't care.
I picked up this book because the library didn’t have the one I wanted and it seemed like it would be an adventure. I was not disappointed (in this book. I was disappointed the library didn’t have the original book I wanted.)
The Year of Yes by Maria Dahvana Headley, not to be confused with A Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes, is a delightfully honest memoir about the amount of unusual dates you can go on in a year, as well as boring, weird, sexy, and fun dates. She decided that her pursuit of love, she was too picky. So Maria boldly claimed to her roommates that she would date anyone that asked; she wasn’t gender specific, she didn’t discriminate against people with or without jobs or homes for that matter. I’d like to be perfectly clear here though, just because she went on a date with these people, it didn’t mean she was having sex with every person she went on a date.
What I really liked about this book was that after a supreme slump of bad dates, she decided it was actually her fault, and not everybody else with the problem. So she decided to change it by changing her outlook. It was a bit loaded with obscure art/writing references but as she is a writer, it makes sense. I love a book that can make me laugh out loud and this was a winner.
The Year of Yes by Maria Dahvana Headley, not to be confused with A Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes, is a delightfully honest memoir about the amount of unusual dates you can go on in a year, as well as boring, weird, sexy, and fun dates. She decided that her pursuit of love, she was too picky. So Maria boldly claimed to her roommates that she would date anyone that asked; she wasn’t gender specific, she didn’t discriminate against people with or without jobs or homes for that matter. I’d like to be perfectly clear here though, just because she went on a date with these people, it didn’t mean she was having sex with every person she went on a date.
What I really liked about this book was that after a supreme slump of bad dates, she decided it was actually her fault, and not everybody else with the problem. So she decided to change it by changing her outlook. It was a bit loaded with obscure art/writing references but as she is a writer, it makes sense. I love a book that can make me laugh out loud and this was a winner.