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Year of Yes

How to Dance It Out, Stand In the Sun and Be Your Own Person

About The Book

In this poignant, hilarious and deeply intimate call to arms, Hollywood's most powerful woman, the mega-talented creator of Grey's Anatomy and Scandal and executive producer of Bridgerton, For the People and How to Get Away with Murder , reveals how saying YES changed her life - and how it can change yours too.

With three hit shows on television and three children at home, Shonda Rhimes had lots of good reasons to say no when invitations arrived. Hollywood party? No. Speaking engagement? No. Media appearances? No.

And to an introvert like Shonda, who describes herself as 'hugging the walls' at social events and experiencing panic attacks before press interviews, there was a particular benefit to saying no: nothing new to fear. Then came Thanksgiving 2013, when Shonda's sister Delorse muttered six little words at her: You never say yes to anything.

Profound, impassioned and laugh-out-loud funny, in Year of Yes Shonda Rhimes reveals how saying YES changed - and saved - her life. And inspires readers everywhere to change their own lives with one little word: Yes.

About The Author

photography by Amanda Demme

Shonda Rhimes is CEO of the global media company Shondaland.  With a focus on innovation, Rhimes’s company approaches storytelling through brand partnerships, merchandise, and content for film, streaming, audio, digital, and editorial. In her career, Rhimes’s work has been celebrated with numerous awards including induction into the Television Academy Hall of Fame. She has shifted the entertainment industry’s business model and changed the face of television. 

Product Details

  • Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (November 10, 2015)
  • Length: 336 pages
  • ISBN13: 9781471157332

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Raves and Reviews

'There’s real value in the experiences Rhimes shares… When, for example, she discusses learning to take better care of herself, the memoir feels honest, raw and revelatory.'

– Washington Post

'Revealing and delightful.'

– New York Daily News

'If you enjoy the rapid-fire dialogue of her characters, reading this book will feel like home. Rhimes opens up, and inspires, discussing her personal experiences as a sister, daughter, mother, friend and boss tempered with biting insights on societal expectations of women…[a] blend of biography and badassery.'

– ebony.com

'Rhimes is, unsurprisingly, a fantastic memoirist: her writing is conversational and witty and lyrical, inflected with the supple human breathiness you might expect from a person who spends her days writing dialogue. It features lots of great punchlines… [It] is also in many ways a side-door self-help book…[with] pieces of advice that concern not just Rhimes’s readers, but everyone…Year of Yes is, like Shondaland itself, making a statement. It is insisting that it is time for the people who used to be invisible to come forward and be seen.'

– Atlantic.com

'A sincere and inspiring account of saying yes to life…Rhimes tells us all about it in the speedy, smart style of her much-loved TV shows. She's warm, eminently relatable, and funny… Like a cashmere shawl you pack just in case, Year of Yes is well worth the purse space, and it would make an equally great gift. Rhimes said "yes" to sharing her insights . Following her may not land you on the cover of a magazine, but you'll be glad you did.'

– Kirkus Reviews

'Rhimes guides the reader through her transformative year-long experiment, each chapter dealing with a different personal challenge for herself, and she lets us deep inside her brain, carefully laying out all of her fears and self-doubt…candid and friendly, almost as if the two of you were catching up over drinks.'

– Slate.com

'A self-help book dressed in casual clothes, lessons for living a better life told through relatable personal essays from the woman who set out to, in the course of a year, make her own better… Never do you feel preached at while reading Rhimes’s book. This woman of huge fame and fortune is speaking directly to you, and she’s doing it with familiarity, humour, and earned wisdom…Year of Yes is an awakening as much as it is a reckoning. Recognise the power of what you’ve been doing. Do more of it.'

– Daily Beast

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