McAnally Jeremy, Arkin Assaf. Ruby in Practice

2009 by Manning Publications Co., 359p
This book is geared toward software developers who know Ruby or who are starting with Ruby and want to put their skills to use solving real software-development problems. We’ll walk you through a series of common software scenarios, such as authenticating against LDAP or parsing XML, and show you how to approach and easily solve them using Ruby.
This book is geared toward developers who want to explore using Ruby in environments that aren’t necessarily database backed web applications. Experience in Ruby is assumed (and is fairly essential to get the maximum value from most of the discussions), but you don’t need to be an expert to get started with this book. Even beginners will find their place, learning from examples that range from practical solutions to development challenges.