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A review by crybabybea
Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets, and Advice for Living Your Best Life by Ali Wong
3.75
I went into this knowing nothing about Ali Wong and also knowing nothing about stand-up comedy, so I wasn't exactly the target audience for this memoir, but I still surprisingly had a fun time and enjoyed listening to it.
I'm not a super big fan of raunchy/dirty comedy, but I found Ali Wong's approach kind of endearing and wholesome. She makes herself the butt of jokes before anyone else can, and it makes her come across as very open-minded and shame-free. I think her comedic approach really worked well for a memoir written as a letter to her daughters. As terrifying as it would be to read about your mom's sexcapades and fecal matter, there were a lot of truly heartfelt moments that broke up the overwhelming amount of poop jokes (seriously, there's lots of poop). But the whole thing was just filled with a tone of passion and genuine love and I found it moving despite the over-the-top comedy.
She briefly touched on some more political topics, like how she defines her identity as an Asian-American woman in a male-dominated career field, but it wasn't the main focus and I enjoyed that each absolutely unhinged story circled back around to a word of advice for her girls.
I found her narration in the audiobook to be super entertaining too and made it easy to keep listening.
I'm not a super big fan of raunchy/dirty comedy, but I found Ali Wong's approach kind of endearing and wholesome. She makes herself the butt of jokes before anyone else can, and it makes her come across as very open-minded and shame-free. I think her comedic approach really worked well for a memoir written as a letter to her daughters. As terrifying as it would be to read about your mom's sexcapades and fecal matter, there were a lot of truly heartfelt moments that broke up the overwhelming amount of poop jokes (seriously, there's lots of poop). But the whole thing was just filled with a tone of passion and genuine love and I found it moving despite the over-the-top comedy.
She briefly touched on some more political topics, like how she defines her identity as an Asian-American woman in a male-dominated career field, but it wasn't the main focus and I enjoyed that each absolutely unhinged story circled back around to a word of advice for her girls.
I found her narration in the audiobook to be super entertaining too and made it easy to keep listening.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Pregnancy, Excrement, Miscarriage, and Vomit
Moderate: Drug use
Minor: Cancer and Alcohol