Book Review: Anna Sale's Let's Talk About Hard Things

Thank you to LibroFM and Simon & Schuster Audio for an audio copy of Anna Sale’s Let’s Talk About Hard Things.

Let’s Talk About Hard Things is an extension of Sale’s popular podcast, Death, Sex, and Money. I’m a huge fan of her podcast and was very excited for this memoir. Sale breaks Let’s Talk About Hard Things into sections: death, sex, money, family and identity. Similar to her podcast, Sale weaves stories from her personal life with interviews and statistics to explore each topic.

The magic of Sale is how she manages to make difficult topics accessible. She reminds her audience that these are unavoidable topics and topics that are made easier when we realize that they affect us all. While it may be difficult to have financial or end of life conversations with our loved ones, Sale opens the door to the way in which we may broach these subjects and gives us examples of other people having these brave discussions. It gives us courage to take the same actions in our own lives and also makes us feel less alone.

Let’s Talk About Hard Things and Death, Sex, and Money are both excellent tools that can help anyone at any stage in life. Last year, I discovered a wonderful TedTalk by author Donna Jo Napoli, where she explains that stories prepare people for events that may occur in their lives and that through experiencing stories, we can imagine scenarios that perhaps could happen to us. I think this is the power of Sale’s work. You might not have had an illness or been a caretaker, yet by reading these sections, you can think about how a similar scenario could impact you in the future, in turn preparing you. You might not identify as LGBTQ, yet reading these sections of Sale’s book and hearing the stories of others, opens the door for listening and empathizing.

I highly recommend Let’s Talk About Hard Things. It’s filled with encouraging true stories on vital topics. The audio book, narrated by Sale, is fantastic, but I also plan to purchase hardcover versions to give as gifts. I can’t imagine a person who wouldn’t benefit from this book.