The Book of Ruth (Abridged)

"I learned slowly, that if you don't look at the world with perfect vision, you 're bound to get yourself cooked "

Having come within an inch of her life, Ruth Dahl is determined to take a good look at it -- to figure out whether, in fact, she's to blame for the mess.

Pegged the loser in a small-town family that doesn't have much going for it in the first place, Ruth grows up in the shadow of her brilliant brother, trying to hold her own in a world of poverty and hard edges. Matt's brain is h...