The Boyfriend List: 15 Guys, 11 Shrink Appointments, 4 Ceramic Frogs and Me, Ruby Oliver by E. Lockhart
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The most interesting thing about this one is format. The whole narrative is written in the style of journal composed as part of therapy. The narrator has then gone back through the text and inserted footnotes commenting on the events. I can count on one hand the novels that rely on footnotes to move the narrative forward. Often, it’s annoying because footnotes interrupt the flow of the text. In this case though, the footnotes represent a slightly older and wiser voice that comments on the events of the text, often with quite a bit of humor and sarcasm. This older voice adds a layer to the story that I found fun.

At its core, this is just a highschool drama told from a tight first person point of view. Ruby, the narrator, has found herself at the center of a lot of drama and starts having panic attacks. As a result, her parents make her go to a therapist. The therapist has Ruby compose a list of all her boyfriends regardless of the seriousness of the relationship. The result is a list of 15 relationships, most of which are just flirtations or might-have-beens. One doesn’t even involve a real person.

In any case, Ruby’s narration of why each of these boys is on the list forms the core of the story and leads her to some realizations about herself. It’s a good book. I’ll have to track down the sequel.


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Some books I pick up because I’m looking for material for my students. I’m a big reader, but I tend to read a lot of fantasy, sci fi, and speculative fiction. Not everyone is into that. I have student, Erin, who likes teen high school dramas. She’s not alone so I’ve been building my “Erin Collection” the guiding principle of which is, “would Erin like this?” In the process of building the collection, I’ve found that I actually like some of these books.