Book recommendations for Jane Austen characters, from Mr. Knightley to Elizabeth Bennett.

Features

Books we’d recommend to Jane Austen’s best characters 

An illustration of a person, small against a big, dark teal background, with an open book casting light upwards on their face.

Books-For-Feeling-Isolated_Hero-Desktop_Penguin.jpg

Reading lists

Books to read if you’re feeling lonely

Quiet Journal

A STEP-BY-STEP PRACTICAL GUIDE TO UNDERSTANDING AND UNLEASHING YOUR INNER POWER 
 
The Sunday Times bestselling phenomenon Quiet forever changed how we see introverts - and how introverts see themselves. Now the Quiet Journal will help you to harness your secret strengths, improve communication and nurture your best self. 
 
With questions to help see yourself clearly, prompts to understand your decision-making style and lists to highlight your unique strengths, this guided journal takes you on the Quiet journey to becoming a stronger, more confident person. 
 
Part One: Finding Your Quiet 
- Assess where you are with the Quiet personality quiz 
- Learn where you sit on the introvert-extrovert spectrum 
- Realize your authentic qualities and worth 
 
Part Two: Using Your Quiet 
- Carve out space and create boundaries 
- Increase confidence in areas that make you nervous 
- Know how best to harness your strengths 
 
The Quiet Journal is everything introverts need to thrive in an extroverted world.

I can't get Quiet out of my head. It is an important book - so persuasive and timely and heartfelt it should inevitably effect change in schools and offices

Susan Cain's Quiet has sparked a quiet revolution. In our booming culture, hers is a still, small voice that punches above its weight. Perhaps rather than sitting back and asking people to speak up, managers and company leaders might lean forward and listen

Marvellous. The most important book published for a decade

The Sunday Times bestselling phenomenon Quiet has forever changed how we see introverts and how introverts see themselves. This companion journal will help you to harness your secret strengths, improve communication at home and at work, and nurture your best self. 
 
This guided journal takes you on the Quiet journey to becoming a stronger, more confident person. In part one, you'll learn more about your own temperament through a self-assessment quiz, which will teach you to make progress towards self-awareness, and realize your own authentic qualities and worth. Part two will then empower you to put that knowledge to practice with prompts for taking action in every aspect of life. This is the perfect practical resource for introverts or the people who want to better understand and support them.

Growing Up as an Introvert in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Quiet Power

"Quiet Power is a brilliant handbook for quiet children (and their parents). It is a celebration of the introvert" - Guardian 
 
Your child's teenage years is a time wrought with insecurity and self-doubt. Their search for a place in the world can seem daunting. Focusing on the strengths and challenges of being introverted, Quiet Power is full of examples from school, family life and friendship, applying the breakthrough discoveries of Quiet to teenagers that so badly need them. 
 
This insightful, accessible and empowering book is eye-opening to extroverts and introverts alike. Unlock your teenager's hidden superpower and give them the tools to make a mark - in their own quiet way.

A brilliant handbook for quiet children (and their parents)... a celebration of the introvert

I wish I had had this book when I was 13. It needs to be read by parents as well as teenagers

Whether you are introvert, extrovert or ambivert, there is plenty of food for thought here... this book says if you've got an introverted child, maybe they're quite happy - accept them for who they are'

Reading Quiet Power has given me a wake-up call, reminded me of my inner nature. To have some respect for the warning signs. Some of us need time to just be. Quietly'

For kids who want to roar - on the inside

Children and teenagers of distinctly non-volcanic natures will rejoice to meet their champion in "Quiet Power: The Secret Strengths of Introverts". (Cain's) narrative voice is kind and understanding as, with anecdotes, social science and practical advice, she extols the qualities of introverts in a culture that prizes noise and flash

Quiet discusses how extroverts in our society are bigged up so much, and if you're anything other than an extrovert you're made to think there's something wrong with you. That's the story of my life. Coming to realize that about myself was very empowering, because I had felt like, 'Oh my god, there must be something wrong with me, because I don't want to go out and do what all my friends want to do'

Marvellous. The most important book published for a decade

Quiet is a very timely book, and Cain's central thesis is fresh and important. Maybe the extrovert ideal is no longer as powerful as it was; perhaps it is time we all stopped to listen to the still, small voice of calm

Susan Cain's Quiet has sparked a quiet revolution. In our booming culture, hers is a still, small voice that punches above its weight. Perhaps rather than sitting back and asking people to speak up, managers and company leaders might lean forward and listen

I can't get Quiet out of my head. It is an important book - so persuasive and timely and heartfelt it should inevitably effect change in schools and offices

A startling, important, and readable page-turner

Naomi Wolf (author of 'The Beauty Myth') on 'Quiet'

Susan Cain sparked a worldwide conversation with Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking. She inspired millions of people, and permanently changed the way we see introverts - and the way introverts see themselves. Now she takes the Quiet Revolution to a younger audience. 
 
Childhood, adolescence and your early twenties are times wrought with insecurity and self-doubt. Your search for your place in the world can seem daunting. Focusing on the strengths and challenges of being introverted, Quiet Power is full of examples from school, family life and friendship, applying the breakthrough discoveries of Quiet to readers that so badly need them. 
 
This insightful, accessible and empowering book is eye-opening to extroverts and introverts alike. Unlock your hidden superpower and give yourself the tools to make a mark - in your own quiet way.

The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

Quiet

A SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER, THIS BOOK WILL CHANGE HOW YOU SEE INTROVERTS - AND YOURSELF - FOREVER. 
 
Our lives are driven by a fact that most of us can't name and don't understand. It defines who our friends and lovers are, which careers we choose, and whether we blush when we're embarrassed. 
 
That fact is whether we're an introvert or an extrovert. 
 
The most fundamental dimension of personality, at least a third of us are introverts, and yet shyness, sensitivity and seriousness are often seen as a negative. Some of the world's most talented people are introverts - without them we wouldn't have the Apple computer, the theory of relativity and Van Gogh's sunflowers. In Quiet, Susan Cain shows how society misunderstands and undervalues introverts while giving them the tools to better understand themselves and take full advantage of their strengths. 
 
Passionately argued, superbly researched, and filled with real stories, whether an introvert or extrovert, this book will change how you see human beings for good. 
 
***** 
 
'I can't get Quiet out of my head. It is an important book - so persuasive and timely and heartfelt it should inevitably effect change in schools and offices' Jon Ronson, The Guardian 
 
'Susan Cain's Quiet has sparked a quiet revolution . . . Perhaps rather than sitting back and asking people to speak up, managers and company leaders might lean forward and listen' Megan Walsh, The Times 
 
'Maybe the extrovert ideal is no longer as powerful as it was; perhaps it is time we all stopped to listen to the still, small voice of calm' Daisy Goodwin, The Sunday Times

Quiet is a very timely book, and Cain's central thesis is fresh and important. Maybe the extrovert ideal is no longer as powerful as it was; perhaps it is time we all stopped to listen to the still, small voice of calm

Susan Cain's Quiet has sparked a quiet revolution. In our booming culture, hers is a still, small voice that punches above its weight. Perhaps rather than sitting back and asking people to speak up, managers and company leaders might lean forward and listen

I can't get Quiet out of my head. It is an important book - so persuasive and timely and heartfelt it should inevitably effect change in schools and offices

Quiet, the Sunday Times and New York Times Bestseller by Susan Cain, will permanently change how we see introverts - and how you see yourself. 
 
Our lives are driven by a fact most of us can't name and don't understand: whether we're an introvert or an extrovert. This defines who our friends and lovers are, which careers we choose, and whether we blush when we're embarrassed. 
 
At least a third of us are on the introverted side. Some of the world's most talented people are introverts. Without them, we wouldn't have the Apple computer, the theory of relativity and Van Gogh's sunflowers. 
Yet extroverts have taken over. Shyness, sensitivity and seriousness are often seen as being negative. Introverts feel reproached for being the way they are. 
 
In Quiet, Susan Cain shows how the brain chemistry of introverts and extroverts differs, and how society misunderstands and undervalues introverts. She gives introverts the tools to better understand themselves and take full advantage of their strengths. 
 
'I can't get Quiet out of my head. It is an important book - so persuasive and timely and heartfelt it should inevitably effect change in schools and offices' Jon Ronson, The Guardian 
 
'Susan Cain's Quiet has sparked a quiet revolution...perhaps rather than sitting back and asking people to speak up, managers and company leaders might lean forward and listen' Megan Walsh, The Times 
 
'Quiet is a very timely book...maybe the extrovert ideal is no longer as powerful as it was; perhaps it is time we all stopped to listen to the still, small voice of calm' Daisy Goodwin, The Sunday Times

Susan Cain

I'll place Bittersweet in the hands of all my feely, achy, beautiful friends

Glennon Doyle, author of #1 NYT bestseller Untamed

Susan Cain's Bittersweet grabs you by the heart and doesn't let go

Brené Brown, author of the NYT bestseller Atlas of the Heart

This is the rare book that doesn't just open your eyes - it touches your heart and sings to your soul

Adam Grant, #1 NYT bestselling author of Think Again

This book is an absolute triumph: it's for anyone who has ever really lived, loved, or lost

Greg McKeown, author of NYT bestsellers Effortless and Essentialism

An amazing and profound book . . . every single person should read it

Johann Hari, bestselling author of Stolen Focus

How to Turn Sorrow Into Creativity, Beauty and Love

Whether you long for the partner who broke up with you, or the one you dream of meeting; whether you hunger for the happy childhood you'll never have, or for the divine; whether you yearn for a lost person, an unborn child, the fountain of youth, or unconditional love: These are all manifestations of the same great ache... 
 
In this inspiring masterpiece, Susan Cain - author of the international bestseller Quiet - shows us the power of a "bittersweet" outlook: the dramatically overlooked tendency to states of longing and poignancy, and a curiously piercing joy at the beauty of the world. Embracing the bittersweet means understanding that light and dark, birth and death - bitter and sweet - are forever paired, and that only by recognising this can we be fully whole. 
 
Bringing to light the ideas of artists, writers and thinkers from all over the world, and her own quest for answers over the course of a lifetime, Susan Cain shifts our understanding of the world by teaching us how to transform pain and sorrow into creativity and love - and therefore how to turn our sadness into an enriching superpower.

Bittersweet

About us

About Us (Header 4)

Best-Jane-Austen-quotes_Online-Desktop_Penguin

James-Baldwin

Marian-Keyes

haruki-murakami-320×320-1

Richard-Osman

Malorie Blackman

Lisa-Jewell

Charlie-Mackesy

Authors (Header 3)

Children&#039;s

Company

Discover

Fiction

Non-fiction

Penguin Classics

Penguin Shop (Header 5)

Useful links

Work with us

sectionTitle

isEnabled

anchor

anchorLabel

prhuk/featured-book

prhuk/praise-section

maxBooks

showViewMore

prhuk/books-section

hideAuthorAlert

formName

iterableDivision

iterableBrand

buttonText

description

heading

legalText

successHeading

successText

image

alignment

variation

prhuk/email-section

prhuk/series-section

prhuk/biography-section

prhuk/articles-section

prhuk-authors

The perfect gift? A Penguin Shop gift card

Susan Cain

Praise for Bittersweet

**I'll place Bittersweet in the hands of all my feely, achy, beautiful friends**

**Susan Cain's Bittersweet grabs you by the heart and doesn't let go**

This is the rare book that doesn't just open your eyes - it touches your heart and sings to your soul

**I'll place Bittersweet in the hands of all my feely, achy, beautiful friends**

**Susan Cain's Bittersweet grabs you by the heart and doesn't let go**

This is the rare book that doesn't just open your eyes - it touches your heart and sings to your soul

**I'll place Bittersweet in the hands of all my feely, achy, beautiful friends**

**Susan Cain's Bittersweet grabs you by the heart and doesn't let go**

This is the rare book that doesn't just open your eyes - it touches your heart and sings to your soul

Books by Susan Cain

Articles featuring Susan Cain

Books we’d recommend to Jane Austen’s best characters

Books to read if you’re feeling lonely

Follow penguin

Follow ladybird

Follow puffin

Sign up to the Penguin newsletter