Making Room for the Thoughtful Ones: A Review of Susan Cain's "Quiet"

January 31, 2013 by Greg Garrett

Continued from Page 1

I love Cain's conclusions, which affirm that we are all created with gifts no one else can offer, and challenge introverts to be most truly themselves:

The secret to life is to put yourself in the right lighting. For some it's a Broadway spotlight; for others, a lamplit desk. Use your natural powers—of persistence, concentration, insight, and sensitivity—to do work you love and work that matters. Solve problems, make art, think deeply. (264)

Her book makes us think more deeply and offers, I hope, the possibility that the quiet strength of the introvert will someday be celebrated alongside the more vocal confidence of the outgoing.

For more conversation on the book Quiet—and to read an excerpt—visit the Patheos Book Club.**

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About Greg Garrett

Greg Garrett is (according to BBC Radio) one of America's leading voices on religion and culture. He is the author or co-author of over twenty books of fiction, theology, cultural criticism, and spiritual autobiography. His most recent books are The Prodigal, written with the legendary Brennan Manning, Entertaining Judgment: The Afterlife in Popular Imagination, and My Church Is Not Dying: Episcopalians in the 21st Century. A contributor to Patheos since 2010, Greg also writes for the Huffington Post, Salon.com, OnFaith, The Tablet, Reform, and other web and print publications in the US and UK.

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