Any Ordinary Day cover art

Any Ordinary Day

Blindsides, Resilience and What Happens After the Worst Day of Your Life

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Any Ordinary Day

By: Leigh Sales
Narrated by: Leigh Sales
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About this listen

The day that turns a life upside down usually starts like any other, but what happens the day after?
Dual Walkley Award-winner Leigh Sales investigates how ordinary people endure the unthinkable.

As a journalist, Leigh Sales often encounters people experiencing the worst moments of their lives in the full glare of the media. But one particular string of bad news stories - and a terrifying brush with her own mortality - sent her looking for answers about how vulnerable each of us is to a life-changing event.

What are our chances of actually experiencing one? What do we fear most and why? And when the worst does happen, what comes next?

In this wise and layered book, Leigh talks intimately with people who've faced the unimaginable.

From terrorism to natural disaster to simply being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Expecting broken lives, she instead finds strength, hope, even humour.

Leigh brilliantly condenses the cutting-edge research on the way the human brain processes fear and grief, and poses the questions we too often ignore out of awkwardness. Along the way, she offers an unguarded account of her own challenges and what she's learned about coping with life's unexpected blows.

Warm, candid and empathetic, this book is about what happens when ordinary people, on ordinary days, are forced to suddenly find the resilience most of us don't know we have.

_____________

'Warm, wise and humble.' ANNA FUNDER
'Masterfully written, revelatory and genuinely uplifting.' BETTER READING
'Asks questions most of us would only dare to think.' THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD©2018 Leigh Sales (P)2018 Penguin Random House Australia
Anthropology Political Science Inspiring Heartfelt Thought-Provoking Funny

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Leigh Sales is a total pro

This was simultaneously a deeply sad and heart warming listen. Audiobooks read by the author are often especially compelling, and Sales' Journo-trained narration is exemplary as could be expected. Highly recommended.

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Confronting, but worth it!

I found it hard to read initially, because it's very confronting, the detail is really accurate and well thought out, its just hard for us to re- live such events. But it's also very beneficial to keep reading and take the knowledge and experience of others who have lived through traumatic events. it is quite healing.

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On point

After going through a highly publicised tragedy of my own nine years ago, this book was absolutely spot on in its analysis. Leigh Sales, you’ve pretty much summed it up.

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PTSD & Mortality strugglers, read this!

This book is great for anyone who has struggles with mortality and PTSD. There are many heavy stories, journalistic approaches but with beautiful silver linings & mind blowing statistics. I learn a lot from this book and trauma and my own post traumatic growth.

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No ordinary book

What an unexpected gem! Leigh Sales has long been a force to be reckoned with on television and she has brought the same grace, intelligence, and wit to a topic that is so often neglected. This book has something for everyone. All of us will have to face tragedy at some point in our lives and this book may provide some comfort.

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Packed with insights, wisdom and good guidance

Listening to Leigh Sales reading this adds a wonderful dimension to what is a lovely book. The insights that people who have suffered significant 'blindsides' generously shared are thought provoking and hopeful. I also really enjoyed the wisdom's of the people whose job it is to support people during emotionally challenging times. I was encouraged to learn that 'being there' is often enough - one doesn't need to be able to say or do brilliantly clever things - just be present .
At times I found Leigh's "why me" idea a little annoying - but then I realised that that is a fairly common question.
This is an easy to listen to book and absolutely satisfying.

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Uplifting and helpful

The research and interviews by Leigh Sales will help anyone going through trauma. I struggled with the randomness of a variety of things that occurred over a number of years, barely able to catch my breath before the next. The themes talked about are part of the universal human experience and will help all. I felt my spirits lift with the understanding the book brings about the future, no matter what fate brings.

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Well worth a listen.

I could listen to Leigh's voice all day. Great incites into life and human responses to tragedy.

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Utterly compelling

Leigh Sales goes bravely and with compassion where no journalist dares to go - into the heart of the pain and grief of people who have been struck by unimaginable catastrophe and ill fortune.

When bad things happen to good people, not just once but several times, how do they go on?

This brave book asks the confronting but important questions: how did you cope? What got you through? What was your state of mind? What helped and what made it worse?

Leigh combines humility and compassion with impeccable research as she takes us with her on this journey into the extremity of human experience.

It’s also a searing examination of the toll that journalism and the legal system takes on people who are the victims and survivors of sudden catastrophic events.

The great gift this book delivers is the precious wisdom of the survivors as they share with Leigh, and us, their experiences and insights.

Experiencing it as an audio book with Leigh narrating her journey adds an extra intimacy and impact.

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loved it!

well done Leigh! Such woderful wordsmithing and narration. I loved Mark Colvins book and your book had a profound influence on me and my thinking of loss. Looking forward to your next book.

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