Between the lines-book review-Quiet:The Power of Introverts in a World that can't stop talking by Susan Cain

 I have been using the goodreads app since it started as a website! Its a great way to catalog what you are reading, would like to read, and what you have read. You can see what friends are reading as well as set reading goals for the year. This year my goal was to read 52 books this year. I reached that goal this July (thanks to the Pandemic) and I have currently read 71 books this year and counting.

Reading has always been a hobby of mine. While we lived in Missouri, I was a member of a book club for 3 years which was a place for a wonderful conversation as well as a place of learning and growth. We chose books that I wouldn't normally had read and usually ended up enjoying.

This past week I finished reading Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a world that can't stop talking by Susan Cain. I had been hearing it mentioned in several podcasts I had been listening to. Podcasts are another thing I have been loving for the past couple years! That's a topic for another day though.

As a self-proclaimed highly sensitive introvert, I related so much to the topics in this book. Being sensitive to noise and crowds and needing to recharge after social situations. The author made me feel more normal and that I really wasn't anti-social but enjoyed deeper conversations with a few people over a party and after either social situation, needed alone quiet time to recharge.

Over the past couple years, as I transitioned from wife to mother, I have changed and grown and become more in tune to my needs as a person and what environmental factors affect me physically and emotionally. In the past 10 years, my anxiety has increased 10 fold I think in large part to social media and the comparison trap that it creates.  Understanding how this can actually make me feel lonelier, I have had to take breaks from it and control my usage and I have seen profound positive results.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is an introvert or if you know or are in a relationship with an introvert. It will help you better understand yourself and your relationship with introverts in your life and release the judgmental thoughts you may have had about them with knowledge and research based information.