Quiet

As you can probably guess from the title: this book deals with the subject of introversion and extroversion within humans. It's written from the point of view of an introvert, and focuses more on them than extroverts. Extroverts are usually brought up more as a comparison than anything. Ergo this book would probably appeal more to fellow introverts than any extroverts reading this. There is still a fair bit of information on extroversion in here however so don't let that discourage you too much!


The author is a self-described introvert and a former Wall Street lawyer named Susan Cain. Susan Cain is an American and so almost all of the book is set in, and directed towards, America and Americans. While some of it might not be relevant to you if you're not American (A/N: I'm not!), such as if you're from a mostly introverted country (an example she uses is China I believe) most of the book is still useful to you. Just keep in mind that she is using a mostly extroverted country as a background.

The book covers a lot of varying topics such as how introversion affects both your personal life, your career, and your relationships. There is a veritable wealth of knowledge in this book, Cain sure has done her research into this topic. It is well presented, with each chapter focusing on a different aspect of your life and how introversion can affect it.

She also gives examples of introverts and extroverts she has met throughout her life to help illustrate how certain obstacles in our life can be overcome or used to our advantage. I say obstacles here in reference to her common statement in the book that we are living in a world where extroversion is the ideal. In a world of extroverts it can be difficult to fit in, or to fake your way into being a pseudo-extrovert (more on that inside the book).

She describes introverts as a necessary part of society, indeed that society could not function without both introverts and extroverts. That the existence of the two in perfect harmony is the natural state of human society.

The book is useful to pretty much anyone, whether you're a parent trying to understand your introverted child, or an introvert trying to better understand yourself and how to achieve success in whatever you want and/or happiness.

The book is great in that it doesn't describe either introversion or extroversion in negative terms, but rather explains that they're both highly useful in their own ways. Neither one is better over the other. Cain was very non-judgemental when writing Quiet.

As an introvert I found the book to be very relatable at times. The title was especially appealing to me. The book wasn't perfect, but it was close enough. The book sometimes seems to read as fiction, to me anyway. Possibly it is the author's style of writing which gives that impression. I was also a bit turned off because of all the Americanism, but the author is American so I can't be too disappointed by that. I almost rated it a 5/5, it was a close call but ultimately decided on 4/5 mostly for the reasons I just listed.