Libraries, Tourette's and Morman Upbringing in One Book!

The World's Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette's, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family by Josh Hanagarne
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

You will learn so much by reading this book, and about so many things.

Josh Hanagarne writes in such an engaging and warm manner that you'll feel like you're having a conversation with a friend. His love for books, his struggle and description of Tourette's, and his growing up as a Mormon are all shared honestly and with a self-deprecating humour throughout the book.

Don't you think people with Tourette's are often laughed about behind their backs, even though this disability must be so painful for them. What is the world about except being perfect and acting correctly, and Tourette's tears that all down. I think Josh described as best he could what it feels like to have his tics just waiting to explode on him. He tries his best to help us understand what that feels like, and how it feels to know how people may judge him because of it.

The story is about so much more than Tourette's though. It's about how his family supports him, how reading helps him control and escape his disability, and how he continually learns what he can to help him overcome his disability. It's about his love of books, and his job as a librarian and a little peek at what a real live librarian's world looks like. It is quite different from how I imagined it. In his quest to learn more and defeat his tics, Josh tries many things, and the people that help him most along the way are unconventional and surprising. Josh learns some unexpected things about the strategies that help him through these folks.

I have to say that what I love most about this book though, is how Josh loves libraries and what they stand for. I have to share some of the book to demonstrate his passion - a passion that I and many of my friends share, for libraries:

Recently a man approached the desk . . . "I never could have imagined a place like this in Nicaragua . . . I've been traveling for a long time, to this country. I hope you know what you have. In my towns we had nothing like this. And if we did, we had to pay for any information. And just because we were willing to pay for it didn't mean there was anything there worth reading."

A library is a miracle. A place where you can learn just about anything for free. A place where your mind can come alive.

. . . a good library's existence is a potential step forward for a community. If hate and fear have ignorance at their core, maybe the library can curb their effects, if only be offering ideas and neutrality. . . A community that doesn't think it needs a library isn't a community for whom a library is irrelevant. It's a community that's ill.

I want people walking through the doors. I don't care what their reasons are. . . Once they're here, we'll work on why they return. Once they're here they've entered an institution dedicated to fighting ignorance and providing a space without ideology. ..Anyone could enrich their life by spending some time here, if only they were willing to look around.

I appreciate borrowing books on my kindle and finding information on the internet, but the library is still important and necessary. We should do whatever we can to protect it and create community from it. (Seth Godin has a great section on this in his Stop Stealing Dreams Treatise.)

So now I'm off my library rant, but do give this book a try, it's very informative and enjoyable.

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Murder . . .Not My Typical Genre

The Light in the Ruins by Chris Bohjalian
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I don't usually read murder-mysteries, but I like Chris Bohjalian, and when I saw he had a new book out, jumped at the chance to read it. There were several times that I thought I had the plot figured out, and each time I was wrong--that's a huge plus for me. I like that I was kept guessing as I read and as a result I was engaged for the duration of the book.

There are many facets to The Light in the Ruins, as well as to the main characters Christina and Sarafina. Their stories are weaved between the years 1943 and 1955, giving you a chance to know them in both their past and present lives.



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