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Year of Yes (10th Anniversary Deluxe Edition): Dance It Out. Stand in the Sun. Be Your Own Person.
1 pages, Audio CD
Published October 14, 2025
5 people are currently reading
23 people want to read
About the author
Shonda Rhimes
11 books2,378 followersIn 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 How to Get Away with Murder reveals how saying YES changed her life—and how it can change yours too.
She’s the creator and producer of some of the most groundbreaking and audacious shows on television today: Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder. Her iconic characters—Meredith Grey, Cristina Yang, Olivia Pope, Annalise Keating—live boldly and speak their minds. So who would suspect that Shonda Rhimes, the mega talent who owns Thursday night television (#TGIT), is an introvert? That she hired a publicist so she could avoid public appearances? That she hugged walls at splashy parties and suffered panic attacks before media interviews so severe she remembered nothing afterward?
Before her Year of Yes, Shonda Rhimes was an expert at declining invitations others would leap to accept. With three children at home and three hit television shows on TV, it was easy to say that she was simply too busy. But in truth, she was also afraid. Afraid of cocktail party faux pas like chucking a chicken bone across a room; petrified of live television appearances where Shonda Rhimes could trip and fall and bleed out right there in front of a live studio audience; terrified of the difficult conversations that came so easily to her characters on-screen. In the before, Shonda’s introvert life revolved around burying herself in work, snuggling her children, and comforting herself with food.
And then, on Thanksgiving 2013, Shonda’s sister muttered something that was both a wake up and a call to arms: You never say yes to anything.
The comment sat like a grenade, until it detonated. Then Shonda, the youngest of six children from a supremely competitive family, knew she had to embrace the challenge: for one year, she would say YES to everything that scared her.
This poignant, intimate, and hilarious memoir explores Shonda’s life before her Year of Yes—from her nerdy, book-loving childhood creating imaginary friends to her devotion to creating television characters who reflected the world she saw around her (like Cristina Yang, whose ultimate goal wasn’t marriage, and Cyrus Beene, who is a Republican and gay). And it chronicles her life after her Year of Yes had begun—when Shonda forced herself out of the house and onto the stage, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and giving the Dartmouth Commencement speech; when she learned to say yes to her health, yes to play and she stepped out of the shadows and into the sun; when she learned to explore, empower, applaud, and love her truest self. Yes.
This wildly candid and compulsively readable book reveals how the mega talented Shonda Rhimes, an unexpected introvert, achieved badassery worthy of a Shondaland character. And how you can, too.
She’s the creator and producer of some of the most groundbreaking and audacious shows on television today: Grey’s Anatomy, Scandal, How to Get Away with Murder. Her iconic characters—Meredith Grey, Cristina Yang, Olivia Pope, Annalise Keating—live boldly and speak their minds. So who would suspect that Shonda Rhimes, the mega talent who owns Thursday night television (#TGIT), is an introvert? That she hired a publicist so she could avoid public appearances? That she hugged walls at splashy parties and suffered panic attacks before media interviews so severe she remembered nothing afterward?
Before her Year of Yes, Shonda Rhimes was an expert at declining invitations others would leap to accept. With three children at home and three hit television shows on TV, it was easy to say that she was simply too busy. But in truth, she was also afraid. Afraid of cocktail party faux pas like chucking a chicken bone across a room; petrified of live television appearances where Shonda Rhimes could trip and fall and bleed out right there in front of a live studio audience; terrified of the difficult conversations that came so easily to her characters on-screen. In the before, Shonda’s introvert life revolved around burying herself in work, snuggling her children, and comforting herself with food.
And then, on Thanksgiving 2013, Shonda’s sister muttered something that was both a wake up and a call to arms: You never say yes to anything.
The comment sat like a grenade, until it detonated. Then Shonda, the youngest of six children from a supremely competitive family, knew she had to embrace the challenge: for one year, she would say YES to everything that scared her.
This poignant, intimate, and hilarious memoir explores Shonda’s life before her Year of Yes—from her nerdy, book-loving childhood creating imaginary friends to her devotion to creating television characters who reflected the world she saw around her (like Cristina Yang, whose ultimate goal wasn’t marriage, and Cyrus Beene, who is a Republican and gay). And it chronicles her life after her Year of Yes had begun—when Shonda forced herself out of the house and onto the stage, appearing on Jimmy Kimmel Live, and giving the Dartmouth Commencement speech; when she learned to say yes to her health, yes to play and she stepped out of the shadows and into the sun; when she learned to explore, empower, applaud, and love her truest self. Yes.
This wildly candid and compulsively readable book reveals how the mega talented Shonda Rhimes, an unexpected introvert, achieved badassery worthy of a Shondaland character. And how you can, too.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 2, 2026
This book is amazing. And if you listen to the audiobook narrated by the author, I feel it is even more powerful because you get more of her personality shining through the narration.
It is a book that inspires, provides value, and at the same time educates. It makes you laugh, it makes you emotional, and it makes you think a lot about society and how many systems work, injustice and unfairness included.
For me, it was really valuable that the author went beyond the stories of when she said yes by giving background context to how situations ended up being set up and unfolding in the way they did both before and after saying yes. It gives inspiration to others about what is possible, resilience, and how impactful those three letters of the word “yes” can be.
It was nice to read the expanded edition to get more details of the impact of saying yes in the long term. More insights, more value, and even more moments of laughter.
Although written with humor and in a lighthearted way, it is a book that teaches you a lot about life and to step out of your comfort zone that is holding you back most of the times.
It is a book that inspires, provides value, and at the same time educates. It makes you laugh, it makes you emotional, and it makes you think a lot about society and how many systems work, injustice and unfairness included.
For me, it was really valuable that the author went beyond the stories of when she said yes by giving background context to how situations ended up being set up and unfolding in the way they did both before and after saying yes. It gives inspiration to others about what is possible, resilience, and how impactful those three letters of the word “yes” can be.
It was nice to read the expanded edition to get more details of the impact of saying yes in the long term. More insights, more value, and even more moments of laughter.
Although written with humor and in a lighthearted way, it is a book that teaches you a lot about life and to step out of your comfort zone that is holding you back most of the times.
January 11, 2026
5 ⭐️ of course. You know Shonda is an amazing writer when you want to annotate the entire book. You can quote any line from this book and that’s iconic. This book felt like I’m FaceTiming Shonda. Taking inspiration from the book 2026 will my year of yes. 💗
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews