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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.

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'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 Anthropology Indigenous Creators Mental Health Awareness Political Science Politics & Government Social Sciences Women's Voices Inspiring Heartfelt Thought-Provoking Funny
All stars
Most relevant
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.

Leigh Sales is a total pro

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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.

Confronting, but worth it!

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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.

On point

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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.

PTSD & Mortality strugglers, read this!

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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.

No ordinary book

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