The Boy Book

Loved this, as I loved the first Roo book (The Boyfriend List). Wonderful, funny, true voice. I am particularly impressed by how Ruby can be so flawed and human and do things I (and she herself, most of the time) know are wrong, and yet I completely believe it. And it just makes the moments when she does the right thing all the more sweet and endearing.

E. Lockhart makes me want to go back to high school so that I can do it again and do it right this time. I am convinced that with the tools I learned in this book, that I will be a master. Oh and I really want to meet a boy like Angelo. Somehow I missed knowing anyone like him in high school ....

The Boy Book is the second book in a four book series that focuses on Ruby Oliver. Ruby is a student at a private high school in Seattle, she has two off beat parents who mean oh so well (but are pretty funny in their attempts), and at the start of The Boy Book, Ruby believes that she doesn't have any friends. The Ruby Oliver series is a message series. It is about the true meaning of friendship and what it takes to be a true friend. It is show more about the conflict between the positive feeling having a boyfriend gives to a girl v. the struggle with what if he is actually a jerk. It is about the meaning and effect of labeling other people. And it is about the crazies and confusions that dating and liking love interests in high school brings to a high school teenagers life. But even though the Ruby Oliver series is a message series and The Boy Book teaches so many great things it never comes off as a after school special. These messages are delivered through experiences and character growth. But really super important, these books are hilarious, they are fun and the main character (Ruby) feels like my best friend or maybe even me. E. Lockhart is brilliant.

So Ruby is like many high school girls. There are some good things about her, she is okay at some things, bad at others, she isn't drop dead gorgeous but some of her friends are and she has some positive physical attributes. This is a quote from the first book in this series and it gives you an idea how Ruby is not described, “I hate those endless descriptions of a heroine's physical attributes . . . it really bothers me how in books it seems like the only two choices are perfection or self-hatred. As if readers will only like a character who's ideal--or completely shattered.” Ruby is still discovering who she is, learning to appreciate her great legs and learning to appreciate that guys like her legs

So, it is really hard to tap into why this book is so fun, I will just summarize some of the plot lines: Hooter Rescue Squad, Penguins, Llamas, the stockpiling of fruit rollups, a discussion on reclaiming the label of "slut" (along with learning why that label gets thrown around), the realization that the kid with acne may not actually like having acne, an appreciation for guys who know how to properly grope boobs (this is carried over from the first book -- very important), public embarrassment from parents, confrontations with a former best friend turned arch enemy, and lots of fun and yummy boy crushes.

Ruby is fun, makes mistakes and never ends up with the guy she thinks she wants. Kinda like real life but better (maybe because she lives on a houseboat with a greenhouse). I highly recommend this book for anyone in high school or who has ever gone to high school. show less

A recent goal of mine has been to try to strike a better balance between review books and backlist titles. As such, I've been making time in my schedule for some books of my choice. How wonderful it is to read a full, already completed series back to back, rather than waiting a year for each one; I'd almost forgotten what that was like. Lockhart's Ruby Oliver charmed me with the first book, The Boyfriend List, and the sequel completely lives up to its predecessor.

Ruby Oliver remains her charming, neurotic self, and she grows on me more the better I become acquainted with her. In The Boyfriend List, I mentioned how realistic Ruby's selfishness made her as a character. In The Boy Book, the impact of Ruby's work with her therapist Doctor Z show more begins to become apparent. She really matures in this installment, learning to think a little bit more about her actions and their motivations. Her progress forward into a better Ruby is not too easy, though, as she does suffer the usual setbacks. Her character arc makes a natural and uplifting progression.

Each chapter opens with a snippet of the titular "Boy Book," created by Ruby and her former friends. In this book, they compiled the sum of their knowledge about boys, from boobs to phone etiquette to their girl code. These excerpts starkly contrast Ruby's current social leprosy with the days with the strength of their former friendship. So much of the book consists of their agreements to tell one another everything and trust one another implicitly, rules made tragic by how much they failed to work.

Romantic drama may seem to take center stage in this series, but, in fact, the most core theme is that of friendship. Lockhart tackles such notions as what friends owe to one another, and what precisely makes two people friends. She investigates both how Ruby's former friendships fell apart, and what Ruby learned from that. Left without any friends, Ruby settles for the best options open to her: Meghan, Noel, and Hutch. She never hated any of them, but they did not used to matter to her much either. Watching Ruby grow closer to them, find their hidden depths and begin to develop meaningful connections with them is a thing of beauty. I especially appreciated seeing Meghan's character, previously shown largely as a Bick-obsessed airhead, given so much more substance.

As far as the romance goes, Jackson continues in his serial dating ways. That boy cannot stand to be alone for five seconds. Thankfully, part of Ruby's growing up is coming to terms with the fact that Jackson is not at all the boy she thought he was, and moving on from him. A new romance blossoms on the horizon, but with an impediment that has me chewing my nails in concern. Ruby Oliver does the right thing, rather than the easy thing, and this is the surest sign of her new maturity.

The only reason I rated this installment lower than the prior is that the summation of book one was poorly handled. Rather than working the information in naturally, Lockhart infodumps crucial facts from book one here and there. Obviously, this will not be an issue for those who are not reading the books back to back as I am.

Lockhart's Ruby Oliver series shines with wit and personality, a humorous little gem. The stories are both quick and delightful to read. Next up is The Treasure Map of Boys, and I am glad I don't have to wait after that somewhat dramatic, though not cliffhanger dramatic, ending. show less

Re-read.

Again, Lockhart's dead on. I identify with Ruby, I love the premise, and the execution leaves me with no complaints. The machinations of high school girls ring true. It would have been easy for this story to get overblown or maudlin, but in Lockhart's hand it remains funny but wincingly real.

Picked this one up and was super excited to see how Ruby Oliver was doing after the last Ruby Oliver novel. I wasn't disappointed and just wanted to keep reading. Didn't take me very long either. I even laughed out loud a couple times (particularly about the part of My Fair Lady being sexist). I love these light hearted high school girl drama books. They're so relatable (for the most part---minus the scamming which never happened to me ever) and they don't weigh on you like some books do.

I'm very excited to see what crazy thoughts pop into Ruby's head next. I'll be reading The Treasure Map of Boys soon I hope. ^_^

Another hilarious installment in the life of Ruby Oliver, this time documenting everything you could possibly need to know about boys. This includes: The Care and Ownership of Boobs, Levels of Boyfriends, Clever Comebacks to Catcalls and Why Girls are Better than Boys as well as a number of other need-to-know pieces of boy wisdom.

In case you weren't aware by now, girls are better than boys because we smell better, always carry tampons and are more likely to survive if we fall off an ocean liner. Basically, this book is non-stop fun with a few actually important life lessons and issues thrown in there as well. There's a great deal of tackling sexism in it's many forms - subtle and otherwise - and also expressing feminist values without show more overdoing it. Most of it I agree with and I love how the author uses humour to prove her point rather than the traditional block-my-ears-now rant about seeing girls as sexual objects. I have one issue that I can't resist to point out, it's nothing original and it's been talked about and dissected a million times over... catcalling. Or wolf-whistling. Or car horn-honking. I honestly don't think this is sexist, if I saw a hot guy walking down the road I might attempt (pitifully) to wolf-whistle (and then possibly duck behind something like a 12 year old). My point is - and feel free to disagree - people go perving on each other all the time regardless of gender. I've never saw this as an issue, just something I wanted to comment on even though I know very few people will actually care :)

On the subject of boys, as that's kinda what this book is about, I really like that E. Lockhart doesn't give us a romanticised set of unrealistic and angelic male characters. Like I found with Melina Marchetta, we get the honest version of teenage boys (and it ain't so pretty) rather than some sparkling, "love you forever and always" Edward Cullen. This is obviously what I've been missing while I was wasting my time trying to find something worthwhile in the fantasy and paranormal romance side of young adult literature. Long live realistic fiction, it seems like that's where it's at lately. show less

In this sequel to The Boyfriend List, Ruby Oliver must return to school and find a way to reinvent her role in high school. Kim is in Japan, and Jackson is now starting to show some interest in Ruby again. Ruby explores her relationship with Noel, Angelo, and even Doctor Z; she gets a job at the local zoo, and tries to choose what field trip to go on that won't leave her shunned and miserable. In other words, a fairly typical (though a bit exaggerated) exploration of the high school universe.

All of this is framed by charming (and hysterical) wisdom collected from observation and experience into 'The Boy Book'. I wish there had been a little more of those, as they really were the highlight of the book. Remembering just how moronic boys show more (and girls) can be when it comes to the opposite sex in high school, it was really fun to see those experiences pointed in manner of a nature documentary program or scientific study. That was great.

I liked that Ruby was finally getting over her passivity and was taking steps to shape her own life rather than allowing other people to determine it for her, but the fact that she kept making stupid decisions in her relationships was irritating at best. Particularly the situation with Noel was shown as a sign of maturity and growth, but it was one of the tropes/situations that I find intensely annoying.

All in all, I found Ruby less endearing in this installment. She uses other people, really does consider other people's feelings very little, and generally makes decisions that are sure to make her life continually miserable. In short, she's a normal adolescent, and I think this book would be very good for teenagers, but I have outgrown this particular sort of story show less