Shy fiction books

[shygirl]

Has anyone read any fiction books about Shy people, or overcoming shyness, or anything really related to shyness??

I would really like to read something that I can relate to.

Of course I always knew that other people were shy, I just never knew to what extent some people's feelings were the same as mine.

[spitzig]

I just looked at my bookshelf. I get rid of most of the fiction I read, since I know I won't read it again, and pretty much only feel the need to reference non-fiction. The only one still on the shelf that came to mind was A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. There were also a couple of sequels. I'm thinking the main character and/or her brother were shy. They might've just been strange or geeky(shyness kind of goes with that). I remember relating to them, though. It's kind of a kid's book, but I recently reread it. It's kind of simple for me, now(I tend to like my novels REALLY complex, like Frank Herbert's stuff). It's still really good, though.

Also, I just read Death of Vishnu, by an Indian author. It had a lot of symbolism relating to Hinduism which I'm sure I missed, but there were several characters who were shy in it. The instances I can think of were all related to courtship. A lot of Hindus have this thing where their parents set up couples. The couples then decide whether it's an "acceptable" match. Most of the couples seemed to be really shy during their initial meeting, though. There were a really lot of characters, though, so these meetings weren't major portions of the book.

[Mildman1]

I guess most people who visit this site are not interested in French films (I know you were asking about books), but there is a really good thriller called Sur Mes Levres (Read My Lips), about a 35 year old partially deaf woman, who is fairly introverted/shy who works in an office, does her job very well but is insulted by her colleagues for her looks (they think she is ugly, I think she's fine), and is never credited for the work she does. Even her 'friends' put her down.
She needs a temp to help her with her work and decides to use this as an opportunity to find a man that she finds attractive (I presume she is a virgin). The man turns out to be a former criminal and she uses him to take (non-violent) revenge on her work colleagues. In turn she has to help him steal some money from a gangster using her lip-reading skills. As well as being a thriller it also shows the development of the relationship between these characters, who are both outcasts in their different ways. Both characters seem real and there is no sentimentality involved, but I found both of them appealing.
Part of the beauty of the film is the way it charts her development from shy woman to someone who's finally opening up to new experiences.

[MorbidChild]

But Inside I'm Screaming by Elizabeth Flock

This book is about a girl who is really depressed and sometimes overwhelmed, and seems shy. She breaks down in front of everyone on live tv. That hurts her career and self esteem, among other things, and she attempts suicide. She gets put in a mental institution to heal.

Sounds odd, I know, but I loved it.

[Ghost]

Sur Mes Levres sounds a tiny bit like the film Amelie (Le Fabuleux destin d'Amelie Poulain). Only Amelie is something of a lighthearted romantic comedy with a pinch of drama. No thriller whatsoever.

Amelie is about a young woman (23..I thought..) who lived with her cool father and hyper nervous mother. Her father thought she had a heart condition and because of that, they kept her at home to be homeschooled. Her mother dies and she is left with her somewhat apathic father until she is a adult, I presume.

Amelie lives alone and quiet and posses' a broad imagination and is a little shy, with no contact with people except those at her job. She decides to give purpose in her life by helping people. Amelie helps people but also takes revenge, without their knowledge that she did it. Inbetween she manages to fall in love and in amusing way makes the guy run around in circles, getting hopeless to find out who the secret girl is (Amelie is too afraid to come out in the open).

[Thought Analyst]

A book I bought in grade 6 book club in the 70s (we could choose and buy books, give the teacher the money and our order form, and they'd arrive a few weeks later).

The New Lucinda by Grace Gelvin Kesinger

It's just about a shy and retiring high school teen who makes herself over in mannerisms and so forth after her parents inform her they're moving. She does succeed, and she makes some new friends at her new school, but runs into some trouble later on in the book with a case of mistaken identity and as a result of that, being snubbed by her friends. At the end though all is well.

note: I recently found the book at that bookstore I habituate downtown (the one with the cat, lol), and bought it again - for only 60 cents haha).

I also read in the 80s - this is just one of those romance magazines, lol - a short story about a shy teen who is unfortunately somewhat overweight, as she'd written (because in the magazines it was the person writing about themselves and their lives). I forget whether she, too, had to move to a different city. But during the summer, they went to the beach, and she did a lot of swimming, and lost some weight, met a guy, had a relationship, and all that. Can't remember the ending, though lol. It certainly changed her though: going from shy and unpopular, no dates in high school, to having an intense relationship during the summer. Sorry, that's all I remember from it .