This book of letters to Ali Wong’s two daughters Mari and Nikki is amazing, hilarious, and insightful. I thoroughly enjoyed every one of these letters, which were (just like Ali’s standup), sometimes crass and always funny. You will giggle uncontrollably reading about her awesome life anecdotes. Despite who she seems like on stage, Ali is incredibly wise, strong, independent, and thoughtful. She reflects on her standup career, her culture, the struggles and joys of motherhood, why she loves and admires her husband, and being a working mom. I really admire her as a role model to young women, if not to teach them about which dumpy hippie white men to stay away from, then to teach them that it is okay and important to be absolutely fearless and confident in yourself.

Ali is unapologetically herself, and fundamentally, that lesson shines through the most in these essays. Who cares about gaining ten pounds when you spend a semester in Hawaii eating the most delicious fattening Hawaiian food ever? Who cares about being judged and criticized and undermined for being a funny female comic? Who cares enough to be embarrassed by their bodily fluids? Who cares about having a huge bush? Not Ali. She’s proud as hell of it. She gets her husband to trim it for her. As a young woman, I love reading this - I’m not going to be the level of out-there crazy that Ali is, but I’m gonna (try to) embrace life the same way she does. Life’s too short to eat bad food, worry about being skinny, be embarrassed, or be intimidated. Thank you to Random House and Netgalley for the ARC.

I am a huge Ali Wong fan. I enjoyed every page of this book and it was truly a delight.

I loved that it wasn’t just a book of her trying to be funny but a letter to her daughters. I love how honest she is and how she shares her view of family and the minority experience. I only wish it were longer.

Ali’s husband wrote the afterward and it was... interesting . Now, his writing was definitely different than Ali’s (you could tell he went to Harvard and that she wasn’t exaggerating about the mindfulness/yoga parts of him ) and he’s not trying to be funny. You have one view of him from all the jokes Ali makes. But from his afterward you see why their relationship works, and how lucky their girls are to have two awesome parents.

Dear Girls will be hugely popular with fans of Ali Wong's particular style of humor. Wry, self-aware, and built on a foundation of oversharing-is-caring, Ali invites all of us along for the ride as she writes about preparing her daughters for whatever life throws at them. This book is an encapsulation of humanity, our joys, our sorrows, our strength, our adaptability, and our many, many bodily fluids. Seriously, be cautious with this one if you're squeamish, because Ali is holding nothing back.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was already a fan of Ali Wong before reading this book. I discovered her by watching her Netflix specials and her movie, Always Be My Maybe. The book is structured as a series of letters written to her two daughters, Mari and Nikki. When Wong first came into the spotlight, she was pregnant and a lot of her jokes centered around her husband and pregnancy, so this book is very on brand.

This will be a great (but cringe-worthily honest) resource for her daughters, but as a fan, I enjoyed it for its entertaining stories and Wong's in your face honest tips and advice. She's known for her raunchy comedy and isn't afraid to bare all. She didn't hold back when she wrote this book. She tells it like it is and reveals a lot of personal stories, so I felt like I really got to know her, both as a comedian and as a person in general.

If you're a fan of Ali Wong's then I recommend you read it!

Whether or not you like this book really will depend on how much you like Wong's humor. She is really honest and heartfelt throughout the book, but she also really embraces the gross-out humor that is a big part of her brand.
My only real complaint was that she did repeat herself in a few different sections.

This hilarious, honest, and charming essay collection by comedian Ali Wong takes the form of letters to her daughters, who she warns against reading it until at least the age of twenty one. I adore Ali Wong, and this book perfectly captures her sense of humor and ability to make light of the heaviest parts of life. Stories of her wild youth had me crying with laughter, and tender passages about her husband and daughters made me just straight up cry. Comedian, actress, screenwriter, producer, and now nonfiction author - she's unbelievably talented, and I'm so glad she chose to share Dear Girls with us.

The funniest book of the year for sure!! Every single page had me laughing so hard!! I could not help but hear her voice as I was reading this book. I will definitely be buying this on audiobook when it comes out too! I love Ali Wong!

Hilarious raunchy warm honest open.Ali Wong’s letters are all this and more.The way she writes them about how she met their dad left me with tears running down my face.Ali Wong is an original and so is her laugh till you cry book,#netgalley #randomhouse

I feel like Randy Jackson when I say I have mad love for Ali Wong, but this book just isn't good. The reason is this book is supposed to be for her kids, but most of the jokes are already in her two specials and then there is the oversharing of information that seems to be her "go to" thing;. I don't want to know how long her pubic hair is, and I am sure her kids don't want to either. Otherwise the books seems to be written for other Asian American women wanting to go into show business. The chances of her two kids deciding to go into show business is not that high, so why pretend the book is for them.

I received an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review

What a sweet way to stylize a memoir- a letter to your baby daughters laying out all the raunchy shit that went down on the way to fame and fortune! Seriously though, the conceit is cute and this is a much better than average celebrity memoir. Very little self indulgence, high on the laughs. 3.5 rounded up

Ali Wong’s book is written as a series of letters to her young daughters, and she includes an upfront warning to her kids not to read them if they are under 21. I can’t imagine that some of the subjects would be any less horrifying to an over-21 daughter.

We know from the author’s Netflix specials that Ms. Wong's style is--unfiltered, to put it mildly. This is part of her appeal. Comedians who don’t feel constrained by unwillingness to offend anybody can often find humor where others fear to tread. Outrageousness can be funny if deployed to good effect, but the frequently the outrageousness here is just gross and not actually funny. If you can get past that, Ms. Wong makes intelligent and truly funny remarks on many subjects, including serious ones like stereotyping and racism. There is a lot of sincere appreciation for her own parents in these pages, and about what it means to be really brave (uprooting one’s whole life to come to a new country/language/etc.) vs what we as spoiled American yuppies think about as “brave." There is also thoughtful commentary on food and on what we are trained to think of as either delicious or terrifying depending on our cultural perspectives.

Other reviewers thought the last chapter, a letter written by the author’s husband to their two daughters, was out of place. I found it to be sweet and touching, and probably the only part of the book that really did feel like it was meant for the kids to read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Random House for providing a digital advance copy for review.

I’m a sucker for a good celebrity memoir, and I knew based on her standup, Ali Wong's new book “Dear Girls” would be a fun read. This memoir is *unsurprisingly* raunchy with a capital R, but it’s also hilarious and heartfelt - and I like her even more now that I’ve read it! Each chapter is written as a letter to her two daughters - a unique and fun way to set up these stories that chronicle Ali’s life. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Final thought: This would be the perfect audiobook for a road trip!

I received an ARC of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair review.
I laughed out loud reading Ali Wong's Dear Girls! This book is presented as a series of letters from the comedians to her two daughters, and it is a perfect combination of warm, sincere, vulgar (in an explicit way, not an offensive way), and funny. If you liked Bossy Pants (Tina Fey), Yes, Please (Amy Poehler), or Why Not Me? (Mindy Kaling), you'll love this book. If you haven't read any of these but are looking for entertainment and laughs, you should read it too!

I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. I was very excited to get this book so as soon as I was able to acces it, I dove right in. The book is divided into letters Ali writes to her daughters and they infuse wisdom and laughter about her life growing up. If you are a fan of Ali, this is the book for you.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an arc for review, this in no way influenced my opinion.

I really enjoyed this collection of letters written by Ali to her daughters, it was much more personal than I anticipated while still retaining the raunchy humour that is her trademark. Even if you somehow haven't enjoyed/discovered her Netflix or ABC work, I think this book will be of interest - the focus on family, being a global citizen, the immigrant/minority experience, and forging your own path regardless are all messages we need reinforced at any age.
The only part of the book that is tonally off is her husband's letter to their daughter's at the end - it's very well written and heartfelt, but for me it was a bit of a lead balloon to end on. I think if his writing had been integrated more throughout (as like a counter to each chapter or even as a preface) it would've worked better for me. Just generally, non-fiction of this nature doesn't have someone else wrap it up unless the author died in the middle of writing - again the letter is fine, it's just the placement that isn't right.

Dear Girls by Ali Wong is a heartfelt, humorous, and extremely raunchy series of letters to her young daughters about growing up Asian, trapping their father, and finding the balance between motherhood and a successful career in comedy. I must admit that I knew very little about Ali Wong before reading this book, but seeing her name trending with regularity on my Netflix account, I knew that I had to investigate the hype.

Dear Girls is written with all of the profanity and crassness that you would expect from this author, yet at its heart there is an underlying tenderness in the way that Ali expresses her wishes for her daughters, and also for her family of origin, who evoke mostly fond memories. But despite her graphic descriptions of giving birth, and recounting many a sexual escapade that easily fall into the category of 'too much information', Ali manages to convince us that it is her deep love of family that informs everything that she puts out creatively. I especially enjoyed the afterword by Wong's husband, Justin, who pens a 'dear girls' letter to his daughters that is truly touching. In the letter, he explains to the girls that their mother is unabashedly true to who she is, and will continue to forge her own unique path in life. And whether or not you appreciate Wong's comedic stylings, isn't that a truly positive legacy?

Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Random House for this ARC.