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.