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Ruby Tuesday
After winning millions on a World Series bet, Ruby Tuesday's father finds himself in a world of trouble as thugs go after him to steal his prize and so causes Ruby Tuesday and her mother to hit the road to Vegas to help make sure he finds a safe place to stay before it's too late. Reprint.
320 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 2005
3 people are currently reading
70 people want to read
About the author
Jennifer Anne Kogler
5 books124 followersJennifer Anne Kogler lives in California, where she was born and raised. She graduated with a degree in English literature from Princeton University in 2003. Her first novel, RUBY TUESDAY began as her senior thesis in college. Her most recent novel, THE OTHERWORLDLIES, is a 2011 Truman Award Nominee. Jennie has two books coming out in 2011: a sequel to The Otherworldlies, THE SIREN’S CRY (due in June), and THE DEATCH CATCHERS (due in August).
Jennie has appeared in front of a wide range of audiences. She delivered a graduation speech with her twin brother Jeremy (which she assumes provided a convenient bathroom break for the audience before Jerry Seinfeld took the podium), and has spoken at schools across the country, as well as at the Library of Congress.
She currently attends Stanford Law School and has worked as a an intern for the Late Show with David Letterman, a clumsy waitress after graduating college, and a legal intern for the U.S. Department of Justice. Jennie is a longtime fan of the L.A. Dodgers, which as it turns out, was a great thing to be in the 1980s and not so much since then. She remains hopeful.
http://www.jenniferannekogler.com/abo...
Jennie has appeared in front of a wide range of audiences. She delivered a graduation speech with her twin brother Jeremy (which she assumes provided a convenient bathroom break for the audience before Jerry Seinfeld took the podium), and has spoken at schools across the country, as well as at the Library of Congress.
She currently attends Stanford Law School and has worked as a an intern for the Late Show with David Letterman, a clumsy waitress after graduating college, and a legal intern for the U.S. Department of Justice. Jennie is a longtime fan of the L.A. Dodgers, which as it turns out, was a great thing to be in the 1980s and not so much since then. She remains hopeful.
http://www.jenniferannekogler.com/abo...
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
November 14, 2012
Reviewed by Mechele R. Dillard for TeensReadToo.com
Growing up, everyone has lessons to learn. As we get older, we start to see that our parents are human beings--men and women--not just dad and mom. Thirteen-year-old Ruby Tuesday Sweet's awakening begins with the wedding of her older brother.
Sports have always been an important part of the Sweet household. Ruby Tuesday's dad, Hollis, is absolutely obsessed with the scores of the game--any game. Little does Ruby Tuesday realize that the reason Hollis is so concerned is not a simple love of competition, but a love of income: the Sweet family income. But during her brother's wedding celebration, a series of events gets the ball of awakening rolling for Ruby Tuesday and, suddenly, she is on the road with her rarely-present mother, Darlene, to hide out in Vegas with Hollis's crotchety old mother, Nana Sue. With her eyes opened wide by these two outspoken, independent women, Ruby Tuesday learns more about life--particularly her own--than she ever knew existed.
Kogler brings excitement and realism to Ruby Tuesday without crossing the line for adolescent readers. There is a lot of gambling slang used throughout the book, and readers may be rather confused by this language, just like their new friend Ruby Tuesday. But Kogler includes a glossary at the back of the book, and this will help readers decipher the "code" of the bookie-gambler world.
Fun and excitement, along with some rough awakenings for the naive-but-feisty heroine, make RUBY TUESDAY a coming-of-age eye-opener for both tweens and teens.
Growing up, everyone has lessons to learn. As we get older, we start to see that our parents are human beings--men and women--not just dad and mom. Thirteen-year-old Ruby Tuesday Sweet's awakening begins with the wedding of her older brother.
Sports have always been an important part of the Sweet household. Ruby Tuesday's dad, Hollis, is absolutely obsessed with the scores of the game--any game. Little does Ruby Tuesday realize that the reason Hollis is so concerned is not a simple love of competition, but a love of income: the Sweet family income. But during her brother's wedding celebration, a series of events gets the ball of awakening rolling for Ruby Tuesday and, suddenly, she is on the road with her rarely-present mother, Darlene, to hide out in Vegas with Hollis's crotchety old mother, Nana Sue. With her eyes opened wide by these two outspoken, independent women, Ruby Tuesday learns more about life--particularly her own--than she ever knew existed.
Kogler brings excitement and realism to Ruby Tuesday without crossing the line for adolescent readers. There is a lot of gambling slang used throughout the book, and readers may be rather confused by this language, just like their new friend Ruby Tuesday. But Kogler includes a glossary at the back of the book, and this will help readers decipher the "code" of the bookie-gambler world.
Fun and excitement, along with some rough awakenings for the naive-but-feisty heroine, make RUBY TUESDAY a coming-of-age eye-opener for both tweens and teens.
February 1, 2011
I really wanted to like this book, but I just couldn't get into it. :(
May 25, 2020
Thirteen-year-old Ruby Tuesday Sweet (named after the song) learns about her family's connections to gambling, (even though her classmates and their families seem to know) when her father wins a huge bet on the winner of the World Series in the 1980s. Now people are after him for their share of the money, so he sends Ruby with her mother, (who is not present in the home because she's always chasing her dream to have singing career) to Las Vegas. Ruby is introduced to her grandmother, Nana Sue's lifestyle living in the Fremont hotel casino in Las Vegas and all that entails--smoke filled rooms, and gambling advice .
I loved this quirky family, especially Nana Sue who walked her lizard named Twenty-one on a leash through the casinos where the inner workings were exposed.
I was amazed that a college student wrote this debut book as a senior thesis at Princeton, and will definitely look to see what else she has written.
I loved this quirky family, especially Nana Sue who walked her lizard named Twenty-one on a leash through the casinos where the inner workings were exposed.
I was amazed that a college student wrote this debut book as a senior thesis at Princeton, and will definitely look to see what else she has written.
February 10, 2018
I liked it. Easy reading. Quirky story unless you are familiar with the craziness that is Las Vegas seen from the eyes of a 12 year-old girl. This was Jennifer's senior thesis at Princeton. She is a master of adjectives.
February 28, 2010
MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS.
I had to return this to library real quick, so I'm writing from memory, a month after I read it.
As a Las Vegas resident, I enjoy novels that are set here. I also enjoy juvenile lit, into which this falls.
Smart pre-teen or young teen girl Ruby lives unconventional life in Southern California w. a dad who makes his money as a sports handicapper. The two of them eat a lot of cereal and pizza. The mom occasionally drops in, but can't be depended on.
Key action - the daughter and mom go on a road trip to LV, to cash in the ticket for a long-shot, and therefore very lucrative, winning sports wager for the dad, while he is (wrongly) arrested and investigated for a murder.
Plot logic is not the book's strongest point. Characters and dialogue are.
Ruby Tuesday, the teen in question, gets to know her mom during the adventure, she also gets to know her dad's mom better, too. (The lady resides year-round in a downtown LV hotel -- which is a true phenomenon, that occurs less and less).v From the grandma, Ruby's dad had learned his way around casino sports books.
The grandma dies of a natural cause -- old age -- during the course of the book. She turns out to have been way more of a wheeler-dealer than the reader could imagine. She was, for example, involved in the murder that had set the mom-daughter pair on the road to Vegas.
By story's end, Ruby ends up more comfortable in her own skin, and has put her relationship w. her footloose mom on a solid foundation, though she goes back to living w. just dad.
Book jacket says the author wrote the novel's first draft during college as a creative-writing project. Formidable!
Can't check out this thought, as I no longer have a copy of the book -- but it seems the action happens during the school year, and yet the Vegas visitors talk about experiencing extreme desert heat. Well, it's not that hot here during the winter. A bit of accidental discontinuity?
I had to return this to library real quick, so I'm writing from memory, a month after I read it.
As a Las Vegas resident, I enjoy novels that are set here. I also enjoy juvenile lit, into which this falls.
Smart pre-teen or young teen girl Ruby lives unconventional life in Southern California w. a dad who makes his money as a sports handicapper. The two of them eat a lot of cereal and pizza. The mom occasionally drops in, but can't be depended on.
Key action - the daughter and mom go on a road trip to LV, to cash in the ticket for a long-shot, and therefore very lucrative, winning sports wager for the dad, while he is (wrongly) arrested and investigated for a murder.
Plot logic is not the book's strongest point. Characters and dialogue are.
Ruby Tuesday, the teen in question, gets to know her mom during the adventure, she also gets to know her dad's mom better, too. (The lady resides year-round in a downtown LV hotel -- which is a true phenomenon, that occurs less and less).v From the grandma, Ruby's dad had learned his way around casino sports books.
The grandma dies of a natural cause -- old age -- during the course of the book. She turns out to have been way more of a wheeler-dealer than the reader could imagine. She was, for example, involved in the murder that had set the mom-daughter pair on the road to Vegas.
By story's end, Ruby ends up more comfortable in her own skin, and has put her relationship w. her footloose mom on a solid foundation, though she goes back to living w. just dad.
Book jacket says the author wrote the novel's first draft during college as a creative-writing project. Formidable!
Can't check out this thought, as I no longer have a copy of the book -- but it seems the action happens during the school year, and yet the Vegas visitors talk about experiencing extreme desert heat. Well, it's not that hot here during the winter. A bit of accidental discontinuity?
October 17, 2011
This book was an AR book and i was at school. The words on the cover attracted my wondering eyes and the spine as well. The book seemed to feeling weird and fuzzy when i first started it. i tried a few, didn't seem all too eager to finish it so i jumped to my other book that is mine, FAIRY BAD DAY, read it in two days and then was like, oh, RUBY TUESDAY next. If a book doesn't appeal to me on the first page and on, it will definitely be dropped.
Tried tried tried, but it's going slow and i guess am going to my school library and get another one unless i don't have time to get another and my english teacher just gives an assignment. IDK. oH welly.
i took out my bookmark and continuing on as if i never read this book. sigh.
Tried tried tried, but it's going slow and i guess am going to my school library and get another one unless i don't have time to get another and my english teacher just gives an assignment. IDK. oH welly.
i took out my bookmark and continuing on as if i never read this book. sigh.
March 17, 2011
This book was alright, nothing TOO special. It was interesting and you could actually learn some things from this book, but it was not highly interesting. The characters are very well described and have a lot of personality, which I liked a lot about it, because sometimes characters are such a mystery. I really do like how much went on in this book. It was very fast paced in my opinion, but at some point through out the book, only a few days go by, but it is described as if a few weeks went by so that part was a little bit confusing to me.
February 3, 2012
Ruby Tuesday is a coming-of-age novel and an excellent first novel. The characters are well-drawn, especially Ruby, her absentee mother Darlene and her tough grandmother Nana Sue. Even the pet iguana has personality! The plot takes off when Ruby's handicapper Dad Hollis is accused of murdering his bookie. After that it's difficult to put the book down. The seamy Las Vegas underworld is described to a T. Some scenes are laugh-out-loud funny, especially the beach wedding with the bride in a white bikini.
July 7, 2008
Great book and a very imaginative story line. Ruby Tuesday(named after the song) finds out more about her family and its past then she ever knew she could. Las Vegas, Murder, gambling, drinking. All part of her crazy roller coaster ride that is now her life.
The beginning is hard to get into but after a couple chapters the plot scoops you in and you can't put it down.
The beginning is hard to get into but after a couple chapters the plot scoops you in and you can't put it down.
March 8, 2015
At first, I don't want to read this book because i think i was just 11 when i bought this. But, when i was 13, i decided to read this and i loved the story! Also because the main character in this book is the same age as me when i was 13. I love the story about her mother, and the closeness Ruby and her father have. Nice.
March 12, 2012
It was a fun read. I liked the humor, the dialogue, the detail in the description of the settings. The grandmother, Nana Sue is a wonderfully rich character. I loved her pet iguana, 21, who she walked around Las Vegas on a leash, in one casino and out the next.
April 15, 2016
I loved it!
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews