"Dear Girls: Intimate Tales, Untold Secrets & Advice for Living Your Best Life” By Ali Wong

Last Friday I had a laughing fit at the hospice where I work. Nobody believes me when I tell them how much fun I have at my hospice.  The fact that I get paid to work with some of the best people I have ever met, makes me want to hang onto this job for a long time. So back to the laughing fit. I was re-enacting something amusing I had seen for my colleague Lillian, and the more I laughed, the more she laughed. We were so loud that a nurse came in and said, “It sounds so nice to hear people laughing again.” That’s what we need, people – more laughing in the face of the pandemic. “Dear Girls” by Ali Wong is a refreshing, laugh-out-loud read crafted as letters to her two young pre-school age daughters. By refreshing I mean this is not the kind of book you are going to read every day. Some reviews described it as “unfiltered” which is a code word for “raunchy.” But sometimes hard-core honesty can be hilarious when it comes to sex, dating, childbirth, marriage and life on the road as a comic. Wong is best known for her Netflix specials “Baby Cobra” and “Always Be My Maybe.” She grew up in San Francisco, the youngest of four girls, and the daughter of a Kaiser anesthesiologist. After attending the Katherine Delmar Burke School and University High School, she went to UCLA and then studied in Vietnam on a Fulbright scholarship. She found her way back to San Francisco where she launched a career as a stand-up comedian. Her routines are clever, modern, insightful and sometimes even disgusting. But even a disgusting story in the hands of Ali Wong has a little charm, too. Her husband, Justin Hakuta, has the last word by writing the final chapter. This thoughtful man seems to not only appreciate his talented wife, but also has developed the self-assurance to let his wife take center stage, while he proudly mans the merch table after the show. To purchase this book on Amazon click here.