About her mother, she writes, 'she did her best to make me tough….She will always be there for me.” Wong brings the same dedication here, where mistakes inspire wisecracking wisdom.Ī down-to-earth collection that is raw but not irreverent. Under the raunchy writing-much of which repeats the highlights of Wong’s act-there's familiar, reassuring optimism. An afterword by Wong’s husband gives insight on what it’s like to fuel someone else’s jokes. Digressions on womanhood are refreshing in their nuances, and pride mixes with conviction in the power of expanding comedy beyond an Asian audience. Wong also lays bare her young adult years, rife with dating disasters, with amusing self-mockery. Her mother’s unsentimental love, which the author grew to understand after visiting Vietnam herself, is palpable. A few letters are composed as lighthearted lists, including how to host a cheaper wedding: “Buy your dress on eBay,” and “Get your hair done at a blow-out bar.” On spotting authentic Asian restaurants, she writes, “Ninety-nine percent of the clientele should be Asian.' The author’s accounts of her initial forays into the comedy business and brushes with famous people add color and demonstrate the necessity of hard work, but it’s behind-the-scenes memories of Wong’s past that stand out for their pointed depiction of a Bay Area immigrant family. Throughout these topical letters, her trademark candor is equal parts crass about sex, tender about her family's sacrifices, and sober about miscarriage, among other pains. In her first book, Wong-whose Netflix stand-up specials, Hard Knock Wife and Baby Cobra, earned her a massive following-details how she met her husband pregnancy, childbirth, and the messy chaos of parenting New York during her early stand-up career, when bombing on stage honed her talents her Vietnamese/Chinese upbringing time at UCLA and study abroad in Hanoi. Find more audiobook recommendations at audiofilemagazine.The comedian, actor, and writer distills years of advice into letters to her daughters.

Filled with laughs, this honest celebrity biography read by the author and her husband is an absolutely fun listen with plenty of real stuff to say.

AudioFile publisher Michele Cobb tells host Jo Reed about relating to the challenges and rewards of being a working mother supported by a husband who is willing to take on non-traditional roles. The author is as candid in this memoir as she is in her viral comedy specials.

Dear Girls by Ali Wong