Introverts are a special breed. I should know since I am one. Given a choice between going to a party and staying home by myself with a good book, I’m choosing the book almost every time. Or I might just take it with me and find a quiet corner.

I have something to read with me anywhere I go. When I was a kid, we would go to my grandmother’s, and while the adults were in the kitchen playing poker and the rest of the kids were playing a game or watching television, I would be in a quiet place reading. As we got older and my siblings and cousins learned how to play poker with the adults, I would still be a in quiet place reading. My daughter even asked my parents to teach her how to play pinochle, but to this day, I still don’t know how to play poker.

At work events, I will usually stick with people I know pretty well. Don’t get me wrong, I can run a meeting, make a presentation, socialize, and I might even enjoy it. But I need to recharge afterward. Finding a quiet place to read a book or play a few rounds of Words With Friends or Candy Crush is how I settle. That’s the key with introverts. We can BE social. We just prefer not to be.😊

Many years ago, I had started a new job, and on my first day, they had a meeting with the entire operations staff. At the time, it was only about 35 people, but it was my first day, and I really didn’t know anyone except the guy who hired me. I had interviewed with a handful of people I didn’t remember, so I felt very out of my element. The receptionist, a remarkable woman named Kelda who is the complete opposite of an introvert, walked over to me (sitting in my corner) with her hand outstretched, introduced herself, and welcomed me to the firm.

I was horrified because I thought she was someone I should have remembered. I was terrified because I had no idea what to say except hello. I was mortified because I felt like all eyes were on me, and I wanted nothing more than to sink through that chair into the floor. Years later, we laughed about that day. She thought it would make me less nervous to see a friendly face, but in hindsight, she said I looked like a deer in the headlights.

A good number of years ago, my brother-in-law was in town visiting, and he went with me for a shopping trip to Sam’s Club. It was before they introduced Scan & Go, which is any introvert’s dream because it avoids the checkout line altogether. But it was still after they had introduced the self-checkout, which I embraced wholeheartedly. While we were walking toward the checkout, he told me he preferred the regular checkout. I asked him why. He said, “human interaction.” I told him that’s why I preferred the self-checkout.

I’m just not a very social animal, but I married one, and then I gave birth to one who laughs when I get stuck having an uncomfortably polite conversation with a random customer service person. Probably the only reason Dennis and I actually got together is because we met in a chat room. He was in New York. I was Illinois. So the chat room was the only way we communicated. It was easy for me to develop that relationship sitting behind a keyboard.

Dennis pushed me out of my comfort zone…A LOT. He was always on the phone with someone in his huge family and handing the phone to me to say hello. And he would talk to anyone when we were out. I recently went to trade in his car for something new. It was bittersweet, but we worked with the sales consultant who sold us our last car. He walked us out to the parking lot, and he broke down in tears about Dennis’s passing. Dennis had met him exactly twice. That’s just the effect he had on people because he was so open to engaging in conversation.

I don’t crave conversation, and that’s probably why I write a blog. But while I avoid conversation in real life, it’s such an important part of the books I read. Books with long paragraphs of descriptions without dialog just take longer to get through. And dialog that doesn’t ring true can ruin an otherwise good book.

One of the books on my must-read list was a great story, and the dialog really stood out.

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Book Review

⭐⭐⭐⭐½
4.5 Stars for Wrong Place Wrong Time by Tilia Klebenov Jacobs

404 pages
Publisher: Linden Tree Press
Publication Date: December 6, 2013

Publisher’s Description

When Tsara Adelman leaves her husband and two young children for a weekend to visit her estranged uncle, she little dreams he is holding several local children captive on his lavish estate. Mike Westbrook, father of one of the boys, kidnaps her to trade her life for the children’s. Soon Tsara and Mike are fleeing through New Hampshire’s mountain wilderness pursued by two rogue cops with murder on their minds.

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Wrong Place Wrong Time is the story of a woman who is visiting her estranged uncle for a weekend and ends up the victim of a kidnapping. The first chapter starts with some great dialog that hooked me from the beginning. Tsara receives the invite for the weekend in the mail and debates whether to go. The interaction with her husband, David, sets the tone for the book and their relationship as a good, believable couple. And the dialog (even Tsara’s inner dialog) feels real.

• “Could be Castle and his cops. Could be a search-and-rescue team. Could be those guys from Deliverance.”
• “Course I love you,” he chided. His arms went around her and he drew her close. “Did getting kidnapped make you stupid or something?” She nodded gravely. “The IQ points are just draining away. I’m barely eligible to vote right now.”
• “Do you ever miss your old wife? The one who doesn’t cry at cotton commercials?” “God, yes.” “Ouch, you meanie.”

***SPOILERS*** SPOILERS***SPOILERS***

The only reason I waffled between 4 and 5 stars was that when Tsara gets rescued, the book is only half over. The last half of the book goes through her emotional roller coaster of a recovery, the kidnapper’s trial, and her seeming crisis of faith. Again, everything felt very realistic; it just dragged a little bit more than the first half.

And I liked the ending. It wasn’t a standard happily ever after, but it shows Tsara healing after the trauma. Definitely a read worth picking up. I would read more from this author.

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