“The Boy Book: A Study of Habits and Behaviors, Plus Techniques for Taming Them (Ruby Oliver #2)” by E. Lockhart
Genre: Young Adult Fiction, Contemporary Fiction
Source: Library
Summary from Goodreads:
Here is how things stand at the beginning of newly-licensed driver Ruby Oliver’s junior year at Tate Prep:
• Kim: Not speaking. But far away in Tokyo.
• Cricket: Not speaking.
• Nora: Speaking–sort of. Chatted a couple times this summer when they bumped into each other outside of school–once shopping in the U District, and once in the Elliot Bay Bookstore. But she hadn’t called Ruby, or anything.
• Noel: Didn’t care what anyone thinks.
• Meghan: Didn’t have any other friends.
• Dr. Z: Speaking.
• And Jackson. The big one. Not speaking.
But, by Winter Break, a new job, an unlikely but satisfying friend combo, additional entries to The Boy Book and many difficult decisions help Ruby to see that there is, indeed, life outside the Tate Universe.
-I loved the Boyfriend List but was a bit unsure of how other books would be. Turns out they’d be just as fun!
-Ruby made some good progress in this book. She’s slowly getting past the fact that her old ‘friends’ don’t want anything to do with her. Good for her! They were really crappy friends any way.
-I always love when characters start to realize that people they never would’ve really hung out with turn out to be really good friends. In Ruby’s case it’s Noel and Meghan.
-I really liked Noel in this book. He’s quirky and different without it being annoying and unrealistic.
-I really liked the snippets of the Boy Book at the beginning of each chapter.
-Ruby still rocks my world. She’s not perfect by any stretch of the imagination. But she’s trying her best to get it together and move on. I like that she’s quirky without it being in your face about it. It’s very realistic.
-I like that Ruby has all these little relationships. It’s very true to life for a high schooler. We rarely have huge romances. We tend to have small things that we obsess over that probably don’t count as relationships for most people but they’re huge for us.
-The only downside to the books are they’re starting to run together in my mind. I’m reading them pretty quickly back to back and when similar things happen in each book it’s hard to make them distinct in my mind.
The bottom line? Quite a good sequel.
