Let’s Talk About Hard Things

‘The number one driver of human happiness, across time and culture, is meaningful connection to others. The road to connection is conversations. Anna Sale is giving us the encouragement, the example, and the tools to do the one thing that can bring us closer: talk about hard things.’

Kelly Corrigan, host of Kelly Corrigan Wonders and bestselling author of Tell Me More

‘In Let’s Talk About Hard Things, Anna Sale brings us fascinating conversations that feel both intensely personal and widely universal, then shows us how to start having them in our own lives. You will laugh, cry, nod in recognition, and by the end, feel like no topic is off limits when it comes to creating meaningful connection. I want to give a copy of this book to every family member, friend, and therapy patient I see.’

Lori Gottlieb, host of Dear Therapists podcast and New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk To Someone

‘With tremendous empathy and thoughtfulness, Anna Sale models how to have the hard conversations — about love and grief and fear and so much else. Sale is a wise guide through the most difficult human terrain, and with her help, I'm now having conversations that before this book felt impossible.’

John Green, New York Times bestselling author of Turtles All the Way Down and The Fault in Our Stars

‘Anna Sale has a real gift for cutting through the white noise that so often overwhelms our most urgent, high-stakes conversations. She's teaching us how to listen to one another again. No one can save us from life's plot twists — and no one should — but page by page, sentence by sentence, Sale is committed to seeing us through.’

Saeed Jones, author of How We Fight For Our Lives

‘Let’s Talk About Hard Things is a gift. Filled with personal stories, complex emotions, and insight into the thorniest of interpersonal relationships, it is a balm, a challenge, and a celebration of our desire to be known in this world.’

Katie Couric

‘It’s not surprising to learn that Anna Sale applies the same compassion and thoughtfulness she displays as host to her writing, but it is thrilling all the same to quickly find Let’s Talk About Hard Things as inviting and comforting as any episode of Death, Sex, & Money. It’s not easy to open up about what makes us most uncomfortable, but the stories shared throughout the book and Sale’s excellent writing around them shows how vital it is that we make the effort. And while I still occasionally squirm over the reality that there is only so much that I can control in life, I am grateful for the tools Let’s Talk About Hard Things provides in helping me deal with such an unfortunate circumstance. I was already a fan of Sale's as a podcaster and person, but happy to now be a fanboy of Anna Sale the writer, too.’

Michael Arceneaux, New York Times bestselling author of I Can’t Date Jesus and I Don’t Want To Die Poor

‘An empathetic debut … In addition to her own experiences, Sale offers no shortage of outside perspectives through interviews with former podcast guests, friends, and psychologists … Fans of Sale’s podcast will find a familiar guide in her reflective and introspective voice, and those encountering her for the first time will find this a comfort in hard times.’

Publishers Weekly

‘Kind honesty — not the type where someone is shaming you, but loving communication of who you are — is one of the hardest things to talk about. As the recovery movement has advised many: "Say what you mean, but don't say it mean." Anna Sale's book provides beautifully written hope that that we can talk about hard things and that makes hard things easier. Or at the very least, spoken. It's like overhearing people like you in a support group in the coziest of book forms. It is thus a combination of my two favourite things: the vulnerability of shares in anonymous support groups and reading.’

Maria Bamford , comedian and writer