The World's Strongest Librarian

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader as part of a quick takes post to catch up–emphasizing pithiness, not thoroughness.
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I'd started a full post about this book months ago, and just couldn't get it to the point I was satisfied with it—I think because something about Hanagarne's story made me want to get granular about it. I'm going to try really hard to limit myself to a couple of quick paragraphs.

There's a part of me that wanted more about Tourette's, but after his initial diagnosis and learning to cope (for lack of a better term), Hanagarne largely left that behind. Sure, it was clear that Tourette's was a constant presence in his life, but he didn't dwell on it. He talked about some of the things he did to combat the symptoms, but he didn't talk that much about having to deal with it day after day. This makes sense, it's not what I expected, but as I listened to the book, I couldn't argue with it.

Hanagarne's a reader, has been for his whole life—and right there is where I made my connection to him. He talks like a reader, cares about literacy and knowledge, makes reader-ly references—an instant connection between me and his book. I can see myself having regular conversations with him that last for hours.

A lot of the book focuses on his family—both growing up and then his wife and their struggles to have a child and struggles adopting. A lot of that was heartbreaking, but it was inspiring to see the way that he and his wife kept moving forward.

I have to address this because Hanagarne does so much in his book, skip this paragraph if you want. What broke my heart more than that though was his repeated discussions of the struggling with his faith. Like every Latter-Day Saint I've talked to, he worried about doing enough. Praying enough—and sincerely enough. Doing enough good works. Believing enough. So that God would bless him, help him with his Tourette's, his depression, his marriage, having a kid. It's all about his performance, so that he might be enough. There was no Gospel here. No promise. No grace. No faith as the Bible describes. Just human striving. I was sincere when I said my heart broke, I stopped the book frequently to pray that even now, years after this book was written, someone would come alongside him and help. Even now, thinking about this book makes me hope that he actually hears the Gospel.

He's living a fascinating life and this book was a great way to talk about it, not only can Hanagarne talk about books, he knows how to write one. There are no easy answers when it comes to religion, family, or Tourette's. Just one guy stumbling through this and other things as best as he can.