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4.13k reviews for:
Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets and Advice for Living Your Best Life
Ali Wong
3.83 AVERAGE
4.13k reviews for:
Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets and Advice for Living Your Best Life
Ali Wong
3.83 AVERAGE
This book was a blast. Actually laughed out loud throughout. Minus 1 star for some light racism
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
This is perfect as an audiobook and was an absolute unfiltered delight.
Another walk-the-dog audiobook, which was read by the author. Wong is writing a series of letters to her two daughters, and she is no holds barred. Funny, raunchy, and very self-deprecating.
funny
fast-paced
Let me start off by start off by saying that i was not a big fan of “Always Be My Maybe” It was funny but it was very cringy. Well enough said i absolutely love this book I would definitely recommend this book. Ali is 1000% herself and owes everything she has done and has gone through. She has the courage to describe how she grew up resenting her mother, her sexual encounters (satisfying and disappointing ones). The fact that she wrote this book dedicated to her daughters and shared all her experiences and breaks it down like a life guide book. Is what most moms should strive to do be open with their daughters, be supportive and above all inspire your daughters to be comfortable owning who they are from their heritage to owning their own thoughts and opinions and giving zero F**ks about what other thought. She is definitely a role model. Amazing narration I laughed out loud on several parts. Also it’s super endearing how she describes how she trapped her husband. Definitely a fantastic book!
Favorite quotes
“We are SHIT sisters”
Favorite quotes
“We are SHIT sisters”
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
Once again: curiosity made me pick this audiobook as well as the desperate need for some comic relief after having listened to a series of extremely serious (and frankly depressing) books.
I remember seeing a few minutes of one of Ali Wong’s stand up specials a few years ago and was a bit put off by her brand of humour - it’s definitely not for everyone. But we all change with experience and I have come to appreciate her outlook and break the mould comedic style more in the last couple of years. Her brutal honesty concerning what it means to be a woman and female sexuality requires a certain maturity and a touch of rage to appreciate, IMHO.
Despite my evolving appreciation of the kinds of jokes she delivers, there were one or two that still didn’t appeal. However, and to add a positive note, the laughs that she pulled out of me were what I needed at the time of reading.
This audiobook is part memoir, part comedic bit and part advice to her daughters. On the whole, it was enjoyable with some parts being pee-yourself funny and others being quite moving. It was definitely a nice touch and wrap up to hear her husband (now her ex) give his take on her career, humour and their family.
All in all, there are worse ways to spend your time than listening to this and while it didn’t garner my highest rating, it is still one I would cautiously recommend - especially to other women.
4 stars 🤓📚
@aliwong
#deargirls
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Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Strong language
Honestly, this shouldn't be a surprise, but reading Ali Wong's Dear Girls was an absolute laugh-out-loud delight. I read the first few chapters lying on my bed, and looking back, I'm sure I resembled a hyena with how often I'd cackle so hard that my body would start convulsing up and down.
Having watched both of her Netflix specials, Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife, I knew going into Dear Girls that I would enjoy it. And yet, despite the raucous humor I've come to expect from Wong... or perhaps because of it? there were some beautiful golden nuggets of wisdom and advice. As a fellow Asian American woman who has struggled with relating to my parents and with facing a society that hasn't always been welcoming (to either Asians or women), Wong's insight and experiences were at once familiar and refreshing, and also heartwarming, like discovering a home I hadn't realized I had. Because even now, in 2020, it's so rare to be Asian American and come across a narrative so set in American culture and yet also so perfectly embodies the Asian culture. Thecheapnessfrugalness, the superstitions, food culture (I love my fish eyes), and perhaps especially the pervading Asian culture of staying private, quiet, and mum about sex, social problems, and mental health. I don't think I would be the only reader to say that this book made me appreciate my culture so much more.
And at the same time, Wong clearly spells out the gender divide that still exists even now, perpetuated by men and women and society alike, whether it's in romance and sex, careers, being a breadwinner, or childrearing. In particular, Wong reveals some of the... less enchanting details and changes that go on with the female body during pregnancy and afterwards—many of which I should have known, and didn't. Some of that knowledge could be blamed on my age, but there's no doubt that a large part of it is because of a degree of shame we women still hold in an attempt to seem "feminine" and "desirable." Despite all the progress that's been made over the past decades and centuries, there's still a lot more to go, and Wong's definitely helping us along by breaking down those walls of shame (because Ali Wong sure as hell does not have any).
Dear Girls is littered with pop culture references through the years (most of which went well over my head, although I think that's more because I am an uncultured potato who only listens to mainstream contemporary pop). Although some of Wong's ideas were a bit scattered at times that made it hard to follow her train of thought, overall, this is a must read—a chance to read through raw and unfiltered thoughts on gender, race, coming-of-age, and navigating life. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone under 17 or 18; as it is Ali Wong, it can get incredibly explicit very fast, even more so than her comedy specials since she digs into her very adventurous past quite a bit in this book. She even says herself in the book that she wouldn't want her daughters reading these letters until they're at least 21. For everyone else, this book is fair game... as long as you're not the type to faint at anything that's not vanilla sex. Hehe.
Crazy Rich Asians dropped in 2018, Dear Girls released in 2019, and the live-action Mulan will hopefully premiere this year. With all the authentic Asian content finally taking its rightful place in popular culture, I'm beyond excited to see where the next decade will take us.
Having watched both of her Netflix specials, Baby Cobra and Hard Knock Wife, I knew going into Dear Girls that I would enjoy it. And yet, despite the raucous humor I've come to expect from Wong... or perhaps because of it? there were some beautiful golden nuggets of wisdom and advice. As a fellow Asian American woman who has struggled with relating to my parents and with facing a society that hasn't always been welcoming (to either Asians or women), Wong's insight and experiences were at once familiar and refreshing, and also heartwarming, like discovering a home I hadn't realized I had. Because even now, in 2020, it's so rare to be Asian American and come across a narrative so set in American culture and yet also so perfectly embodies the Asian culture. The
And at the same time, Wong clearly spells out the gender divide that still exists even now, perpetuated by men and women and society alike, whether it's in romance and sex, careers, being a breadwinner, or childrearing. In particular, Wong reveals some of the... less enchanting details and changes that go on with the female body during pregnancy and afterwards—many of which I should have known, and didn't. Some of that knowledge could be blamed on my age, but there's no doubt that a large part of it is because of a degree of shame we women still hold in an attempt to seem "feminine" and "desirable." Despite all the progress that's been made over the past decades and centuries, there's still a lot more to go, and Wong's definitely helping us along by breaking down those walls of shame (because Ali Wong sure as hell does not have any).
Dear Girls is littered with pop culture references through the years (most of which went well over my head, although I think that's more because I am an uncultured potato who only listens to mainstream contemporary pop). Although some of Wong's ideas were a bit scattered at times that made it hard to follow her train of thought, overall, this is a must read—a chance to read through raw and unfiltered thoughts on gender, race, coming-of-age, and navigating life. I wouldn't recommend it for anyone under 17 or 18; as it is Ali Wong, it can get incredibly explicit very fast, even more so than her comedy specials since she digs into her very adventurous past quite a bit in this book. She even says herself in the book that she wouldn't want her daughters reading these letters until they're at least 21. For everyone else, this book is fair game... as long as you're not the type to faint at anything that's not vanilla sex. Hehe.
Crazy Rich Asians dropped in 2018, Dear Girls released in 2019, and the live-action Mulan will hopefully premiere this year. With all the authentic Asian content finally taking its rightful place in popular culture, I'm beyond excited to see where the next decade will take us.