Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars | 6,199 ratings

Price: 13.78

Last update: 11-16-2024


About this item

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER From Ali Wong, star of the Netflix original series Beef, a “refreshing, hilarious, and honest account of making a career in a male-dominated field, dating, being a mom, growing up, and so much more” (Bustle) through heartfelt and wickedly funny letters to her daughters

Ali Wong is one of Time’s 100 Most Influential People of the Year “Knife-sharp . . . a genuine pleasure.”—The New York Times

ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Time, Variety, Chicago Tribune, Glamour, New York

In her hit Netflix comedy special Baby Cobra, an eight-month pregnant Ali Wong resonated so strongly that she even became a popular Halloween costume. Wong told the world her remarkably unfiltered thoughts on marriage, sex, Asian culture, working women, and why you never see new mom comics on stage but you sure see plenty of new dads.

The sharp insights and humor are even more personal in this completely original collection. She shares the wisdom she’s learned from a life in comedy and reveals stories from her life off stage, including the brutal single life in New York (i.e. the inevitable confrontation with erectile dysfunction), reconnecting with her roots (and drinking snake blood) in Vietnam, tales of being a wild child growing up in San Francisco, and parenting war stories. Though addressed to her daughters, Ali Wong’s letters are absurdly funny, surprisingly moving, and enlightening (and gross) for all.


Top reviews from the United States

Mary Maz C
5.0 out of 5 stars Real & Refreshing
Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2023
I laughed out loud many times... I love how refreshingly honest she is... Eg. about new motherhood... and that scene of her & the family at the park... So real, and humorously relatable. I also enjoyed how she pulls back the curtain of what it's like to be a stand-up comedian (the good, bad, and the ugly). Having a section from her hubby at the end was a bonus, it was great to hear his perspective too.... Ali Wong is a unique person, and her radical honesty & open expression about her life is raw & inspiring - Thank you!
Mr and Mrs Whittemore
4.0 out of 5 stars Funny
Reviewed in the United States on April 18, 2020
It's true. This book is raunchy. Even for me. And I'm no prude. So if you don't like raunch, this book is not for you. I like Ali Wong's comedy and I found this book to be very entertaining and funny. I like how she wrote it as a future letter of sorts to her girls. It's an easy read and you learn a bit about Ali and her journey through life. She's a very cultured and bright woman with a lot of good advice and insight based on knowledge and EXPERIENCE. I love the part her husband writes (what a great and supportive man). I also love her summary on Asian cuisine. As a lover of food, particularly Asian, she nailed it! - Mrs. Whittemore
MommyDearest
5.0 out of 5 stars Ali is funny !!
Reviewed in the United States on May 30, 2024
Highly recommend if your looking for something to make you laugh
Peggy Sue
5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh out loud!
Reviewed in the United States on July 12, 2023
Honestly, if I was Ali Wong, I would want my daughters to wait WAY longer before reading this book, because the tales of her life are wild! But I really cracked up all the way through, and it was a real page turner. I feel a little bit like she has already judged me as a person for ever having been to a P.F. Chang's, but she's so honest and real, it felt very cool.
BFTL
5.0 out of 5 stars Dear Everyone!
Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2020
The book starts out sweet and light hearted with so many things any woman could identify with but then starts to get deeper. It is in the same tone as her stand up, so if you're easily offended by real life language and situations, maybe not the book for you.
I have to admit for me parts of the book hit too close to home. I am white and luckily enough to have a son who brought an amazing Asian girlfriend into our lives. I have spent a lot of time wondering, if not meaning to, I have some ignorant racism in me. Sad part it is trying not to be where I might have gone wrong. I love being challenged even if it is uncomfortably.
She is a genius to me and her husbands finial words were heart warming and so very real.
Please take the time to read and learn there are many levels to this book from light hearted to very serious.
Chipotle Ferraro
3.0 out of 5 stars One of the better celebrity autobiographies
Reviewed in the United States on November 19, 2019
Before I read this, I really didn’t like Ali Wong that much, but after reading it I see her as a much more genuine person. It’s a fully disgusting book, so be prepared for that, but it’s also a fun and light read with a few really funny lines. My main takeaways were “I am so ****ing sick of rich people” and “Are Ali Wong and I actually the same person?” ...No, hell no. I will never pay to go to Equinox and even though I’ve worked for a functional medicine doctor I’m not into natural remedies. But, we’re more similar than I thought.

In the first half of the book I desperately wanted to take her by the shoulders and say “YOU HAVE LEAD AN EXTREMELY PRIVILEGED LIFE! CAN YOU LIKE, RECOGNIZE THAT?” Still, it was fun to realize there are experiences we share and it was good to try to see things from her perspective.

You will definitely be super hungry while reading — she talks about food a lot, so you’re going to get tugged back and forth between thinking ‘oh my god ew’ during the parts about, err, various peoples’ bodies, and having your mouth water as you think about soup. So honestly don’t buy this book if you don’t live near some good Vietnamese restaurants or have a friend from Vietnam who likes to share their cooking.

Ultimately, I think the author actually has a pretty narrow world view, but she does make some awesome points about dealing with that very thing so I have to say I think she has a good heart and tries to be responsible with her opinions.

This is definitely not the version of the book she’s planning on giving to her kids — this is probably about half of it, and I think so because there isn’t much content here and it won’t tell you anything you don’t already know about Ali Wong from her comedy specials. The chapters are definitely repetitive and mostly make three points: respect other cultures’ food, Ali Wong is Horny, and Ali Wong has never really gone through any hardship.

The one thing I wish I could say to the author is that, in regard to her complaints about the people in the US who live on Kraft Singles and white bread — they do it because they’re poor. They’re also ignorant of other cultures largely because they’re poor. Rich people in the US eat foie gras, bone marrow and oysters and have been doing it at least since I was a kid in the 90’s, watching Martha Stewart give her tips for getting marrow bones super white before serving. A lot of Vietnamese cooking also comes from French recipes, and the French also eat escargot and chicken hearts, which your average white kid in America probably hasn’t tried if they haven’t been taken to a French restaurant. If you’re thinking, “You can get chicken hearts for like $1.98 at Uwajimaya,” let me tell you, poor people don’t really go places they’re not sure they’re welcome, and I’ve been straight up asked “Why are you here?” at Uwajimaya. So, I’m sorry your rude friends aren’t comfortable with some dishes, but speaking as a former rich kid gone too poor to eat anything but macaroni when the economy went bad: My snow white Polish *** has been roasted in a high school lunch room for eating guacamole. Kids are jerks, the only real privilege is money, and you’ve had more than enough your whole life.

So... as you can tell, the book chafes a little. I haven’t had an easy life so it’s very, very hard for me to take Ali Wong’s complaints seriously when she got to not only go to college but study abroad twice. She even has the nerve to write about studying abroad like it’s a chore everyone should undertake even though it’s inconvenient, not an impossible and expensive privilege most people will never get. Is racism a huge problem in America? Yes! Is white privilege real? Yes! Is Ali Wong writing about any of it? ...Nah? But she definitely thinks she is.

I do think it’s important for wealthy people of color to give voice to the things non-wealthy people of color don’t have a platform for, but I don’t like the way Ali Wong does it. Like I said, she makes it tough to take her seriously, and she sounds naive even when she talks about things she’s lived through.

All in all, not bad for a celebrity book but not what I’d call beautifully communicated. A good book to read on the bus.
Michelle Burke
4.0 out of 5 stars A solid but average memoir
Reviewed in the United States on March 20, 2020
Written as a series of advice letters to pass on to her two girls that she was famously pregnant with during her seminal stand up specials. Dear Girls is a solid memoir, but in the end it offers nothing new or exciting. Most of the items we know from her stand up. What I didn’t already know, made me like her less, and that made me sad. I went from finding her a funny and relatable person. To a out of touch and up tight. Some of the memoir was just straight up gross. I can’t imagine ever wanting my future children wanting to read that about myself.
Kindle Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Love this
Reviewed in the United States on January 19, 2024
So real and honest. Blunt and funny. I highly recommend this book and the unique way Ali Wong writes. And the chapters by her husband.

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