The World's Strongest Librarian by Josh Hanagarne

Title: The World's Strongest Librarian: A Memoir of Tourette's, Faith, Strength, and the Power of Family
Author: Josh Hanagarne
Type:  Audiobook
Narrator: Stephen R. Thorne
Genre: Memoir
Series: No
Copyright: 2014
Publisher: AudioGo
Rating: 4.5 out of 5


Summary: from good reads

An inspiring story of how a Mormon kid with Tourette's found salvation in books and weight-lifting.

Josh Hanagarne couldn't be invisible if he tried. Although he wouldn't officially be diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome until his freshman year of high school, Josh was six years old and onstage in a school Thanksgiving play when he first began exhibiting symptoms. By the time he was twenty, the young Mormon had reached his towering adult height of 6'7" when — while serving on a mission for the Church of Latter Day Saints — his Tourette's tics escalated to nightmarish levels.

Determined to conquer his affliction, Josh underwent everything from quack remedies to lethargy-inducing drug regimes to Botox injections that paralyzed his vocal cords and left him voiceless for three years. Undeterred, Josh persevered to marry and earn a degree in Library Science. At last, an eccentric, autistic strongman — and former Air Force Tech Sergeant and guard at an Iraqi prison — taught Josh how to "throttle" his tics into submission through strength-training.

Today, Josh is a librarian in the main branch of Salt Lake City's public library and founder of a popular blog about books and weight lifting—and the proud father of four-year-old Max, who has already started to show his own symptoms of Tourette's.

The World's Strongest Librarian illuminates the mysteries of this little-understood disorder, as well as the very different worlds of strongman training and modern libraries. With humor and candor, this unlikely hero traces his journey to overcome his disability — and navigate his wavering Mormon faith — to find love and create a life worth living.

Feelings:
I loved this audiobook. Josh Hanagarne is a librarian and he has tourette's. This is an unlikely combination but as we get to know josh as he moves through childhood into adolescence and finally adulthood we realize there isn't anything else he could be.

I liked that each chapter started with facts about the library. It was a nice way of showing that our narrator might be a weight lifting librarian but the people in the library are just as strange. I had seen this book mentioned a couple of times recently and was very excited to listen to it. I was not disappointed.

I highly recommend this book.

The Eye of Zoltar by Jasper Fford

Title: The Eye of Zoltar 
Author: Jasper Fford 
Type: Young Adult Novel 
Genre: Fantasy 
Series: Yes, Chronicles of Kazam #3 
Pages: 405
Copyright: 2014 
Publisher: HMH Books 
Rating: 4 out of 5


Summary: from good reads
Orphans Jennifer Strange 16, manager of Kazam mages, and apprentice Tiger Prawns 12, stand in the way of The Mighty Shandar. Shandar must kill last two dragons for King of Snodd in Ununited Kingdoms. Jen needs legendary jewel The Eye of Zoltar, last seen on pirate, and to tutor spoiled Princess Shazzarine. Perilous journey has 50% Fatality Index.

Feelings: 
The Eye of Zoltar, the third book in the Chronicles of Kazam, was just as interesting as the previous two. At the end of the last book Jennifer was getting ready to go on a date with Perkins a young wizard. In this story they get a very strange first date chasing a Tralfamosaur.

I love the made up creatures that populate this series. Jennifer Strange may not have magic herself but as the head of the magical house Kazam she is in charge of plenty of wizards. 

The world that is created in this series is so much fun. A little dangerous, yes, but full of adventure. This is a series for young adults but it is a fun read for all ages. 

Fruits Basket Volume 13 by Natsuki Takaya

Title: Fruits Basket, Volume 13 
Author: Natsuki Takaya 
Type: Manga 
Genre: Shoujo 
Series: Yes, Vol. 13 of 23 
Pages: 200 
Copyright: 2006 
Publisher: TOKYOPOP Inc. 
Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary: from Good Reads
The number one manga in America continues!

The time for Yuki's parent-teacher conference has finally arrived, and Yuki must learn how to make his own decisions if he wants to have a say about his future. Later, Tohru sets off on a quest to find out if Kureno Sohma is the same person Arisa has been in love with all this time. But along the way she will discover a tragic secret about Momiji's sister Momo...

Feelings:
I felt like there were a few jumps in this volume that I hadn't really noticed in the other volumes. Tohru used to me in almost every scene or at least she was a pretty big part of the scene. In this volume we spend a good deal of time with characters that have been minor characters in the past. I didn't mind this but I thought it was interesting.

Tohru trying to solve her friends problem with her love life decides to sneak into the Sohma house and find Kureno who she met breifly and thinks maybe the same Kureno Arisa is in love with. As per normal with Tohru this doesn't go as smoothly as it maybe should and she ends up going in a round about way to get there and in the process mets Momo, Momiji's little sister.

I am still enjoying the series and look forward to seeing what comes next.

This Shattered World by Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

Title: This Shattered World 
Author: Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner 
Type: Young Adult Novel 
Genre: Fantasy 
Series: Yes. Starbound  #2 
Pages: 394 
Copyright: 2014 
Publisher: Hyperion 
Rating: 4 out of 5


Summary: from good reads
The second installment in the epic Starbound trilogy introduces a new pair of star-crossed lovers on two sides of a bloody war.

Jubilee Chase and Flynn Cormac should never have met.

Lee is captain of the forces sent to Avon to crush the terraformed planet's rebellious colonists, but she has her own reasons for hating the insurgents.

Rebellion is in Flynn's blood. Terraforming corporations make their fortune by recruiting colonists to make the inhospitable planets livable, with the promise of a better life for their children. But they never fulfilled their promise on Avon, and decades later, Flynn is leading the rebellion.

Desperate for any advantage in a bloody and unrelentingly war, Flynn does the only thing that makes sense when he and Lee cross paths: he returns to base with her as prisoner. But as his fellow rebels prepare to execute this tough-talking girl with nerves of steel, Flynn makes another choice that will change him forever. He and Lee escape the rebel base together, caught between two sides of a senseless war.

Feelings: 
I think I might actually like this story more than the first in the series. We did have a small over lay in characters but mostly it was the same universe. I didn't mind it having new characters because the first in the series, These Broken Stars, was a complete story. This Shattered World did reference the first book enjoy that reading it without having read the first book might have been a little confusing.

The characters in this story, Jubilee and Flynn were interesting characters and I liked them. This book was a little more chaste than the first book. In the first book the characters spend a lot more time together and I felt like they really knew each other. In this story Jubilee and Flynn are just starting to get to know each other so I didn't feel like anything was missing as far as the romance goes.

I really enjoy the universe that is creating in this series. While the both books are grounded on a planet we know that the expanse of the universe is large.

I recommend this series. 

A Better World by Marcus Sakey

Title: A Better World 
Author: Marcus Sakey 
Type: Novel 
Genre: Dystopian Fantasy 
Series: Yes, Brilliance Saga #2 
Pages: 380 
Copyright: 2014 
Publisher: Thomas & Mercer 
Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary: from good reads
The brilliants changed everything.

Since 1980, 1% of the world has been born with gifts we’d only dreamed of. The ability to sense a person’s most intimate secrets, or predict the stock market, or move virtually unseen. For thirty years the world has struggled with a growing divide between the exceptional...and the rest of us.

Now a terrorist network led by brilliants has crippled three cities. Supermarket shelves stand empty. 911 calls go unanswered. Fanatics are burning people alive.

Nick Cooper has always fought to make the world better for his children. As both a brilliant and an adviser to the president of the United States, he’s against everything the terrorists represent. But as America slides toward a devastating civil war, Cooper is forced to play a game he dares not lose—because his opponents have their own vision of a better world.

And to reach it, they’re willing to burn this one down.

From Marcus Sakey, “the master of the mindful page turner” (Gillian Flynn) and “one of our best storytellers” (Michael Connelly), Book Two of the Brilliance Saga is a relentless thrill ride that will change the way you look at your world—and the people around you.

Feelings: 
I remember back when I first started reading the series I thought Cooper was an ass. He is still an ass in many many ways but the story is so good I just don't care that the main character is full of himself. Marcus Sakey has managed to make me love a story were the good guy is confused and always jumping from one conclusion to the next and yes trying to do the right thing and failing miserably. And the bad guy well you are never sure who it really is.

This book at times had me wondering about our world and it's safety. Going to the grocery story and having them be out of what you need is very frustrating but it doesn't happen. Reading about stores with empty shelves is the modern worlds nightmare. What would you do in the zombie appocolipse, the plan characters made when playing a game years before comes into play in this story and we see the characters struggling to make hard decisions.

I highly recommend this book. It was excellent.

Fruits Basket Volume 12 by Natsuki Takaya

Title: Fruits Basket, Volume 12 
Author: Natsuki Takaya 
Type: Manga 
Genre: Shoujo 
Series: Yes, Vol. 12 of 23 
Pages: 205 
Copyright: 2005 
Publisher: TOKYOPOP Inc. 
Rating: 4 out of 5

Summary: from Good Reads
With the beginning of the school year approaching, the gang returns from summer break - and what a vacation indeed! A new student council has been assembled, with two new secretaries: Naohito, who has declared himself Yuki's rival, and Kimi, who is known as a devil woman - and a thief of men's hearts. Later, when Tohru goes to see her grandfather, he brings up a part of Tohru's past that she had tried to shut away. And with a parent-teacher conference on the horizon, Mayuko gives Shigure some good advice.

Feelings:
Tohru comes back from the Sohma summer house to find that her grandfather has hurt his back and she is struggling with what she wants to do in the future and what she will say at her parent teacher conference. With her grandfather bedridden while he recovers from the back injury Shigure steps in as Tohru's guardian. 

This issue was funny  issue as we have Shigure who knows and used to date Tohru's teacher and Tohru who knows something happened there but not what. I thought it was pretty funny.

I am still enjoying the series. I'm glad we didn't have Akito in this volume he was getting a bit old.

The Lost City of Z by David Grann

Title: The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon 
Author: David Grann 
Type: Audiobook 
Narrator:Mark Deakins 
Genre: Non-Fiction 
Series: No 
Time: 10 hours 4 minutes 
Copyright: 2009 
Publisher: Random House Audio 
Rating: 4 out of 5


Summary: from good reads
A grand mystery reaching back centuries. A sensational disappearance that made headlines around the world. A quest for truth that leads to death, madness or disappearance for those who seek to solve it. The Lost City of Z is a blockbuster adventure narrative about what lies beneath the impenetrable jungle canopy of the Amazon.

After stumbling upon a hidden trove of diaries, acclaimed New Yorker writer David Grann set out to solve "the greatest exploration mystery of the twentieth century": What happened to the British explorer Percy Fawcett and his quest for the Lost City of Z?

In 1925 Fawcett ventured into the Amazon to find an ancient civilization, hoping to make one of the most important discoveries in history. For centuries Europeans believed the world’s largest jungle concealed the glittering kingdom of El Dorado. Thousands had died looking for it, leaving many scientists convinced that the Amazon was truly inimical to humankind. But Fawcett, whose daring expeditions helped inspire Conan Doyle’s The Lost World, had spent years building his scientific case. Captivating the imagination of millions around the globe, Fawcett embarked with his twenty-one-year-old son, determined to prove that this ancient civilization—which he dubbed “Z”—existed. Then he and his expedition vanished.

Fawcett’s fate—and the tantalizing clues he left behind about “Z”—became an obsession for hundreds who followed him into the uncharted wilderness. For decades scientists and adventurers have searched for evidence of Fawcett’s party and the lost City of Z. Countless have perished, been captured by tribes, or gone mad. As David Grann delved ever deeper into the mystery surrounding Fawcett’s quest, and the greater mystery of what lies within the Amazon, he found himself, like the generations who preceded him, being irresistibly drawn into the jungle’s “green hell.” His quest for the truth and his stunning discoveries about Fawcett’s fate and “Z” form the heart of this complex, enthralling narrative.

Feelings:
This story held my attention the entire time I was listening to it. It follows Fawcett on his quests in the Amazon as his obsession grows and he looks for Z. As with history we know that Fawcett disappears and thus as we follow him and the reporter as they search for the City of Z we wonder if we can find the city Fawcett was searching for and if the Amazon can keep secrets that held hundreds of people captivated "what happened to Cornal Fawcett, his son Jack, and Jack's best friend Raleigh Rimmell?"

The story also gives a glimpse of what life is like in the Amazon and what it might have been like for explorers. I enjoyed the history and archeological findings that went into the telling of the story.

I'm not surprised that there is a movies in the works based off this book. It was absolutely fascinating. I highly recommend it.