Quiet by Susan Cain, ah it's lovely

I finally read Quiet by Susan Cain all the way through. I'd been dipping in my reading toes here and there and when I had the flu a few weeks ago I could finally read it all the way through.

Quiet is about introverts. The way they process, the way they work, the way they are children, and the way they are adults.

The book was extremely validating, because I have always been and still am definitely introverted. I'm also social and friendly, and I used to be louder and very funny (now I'm just moderately funny. It's a Mom thing. I'm sure the rest of the funny will come back. It's in there.) which means that I can come off way more extroverted than I really am. But as I've said before on another blog: I've never wanted to be Cinderella on display as the center of attention all the time. I want to be the fairy godmother who gets to do her fabulous job and then go home, preferably to a cozy place with a hot bath and rooms with lots of books. And some quiet. Lots of quiet.

And that is classic introvert.

So this book was like finding my people. It spoke to truths I've already discovered for myself and how I navigate valuing people but needing alone time to stabilize.

One of the most fascinating part of Cain's analysis was that she linked children who are highly sensitive to adults who are introverted. As a mom of kids who veer more introvert than extrovert, this was very insightful.

All together just an interesting read. Cain isn't a researcher by training and so some of her conclusions are a bit of a stretch, but she is engaging and interesting. I bet she'd do better another time writing time around, but she did fairly well for this one.

Mariann, have you read this one yet?