This is a good suggestion , as the Chris Pine book is a very easy, quick read.

Also, the O'Reilly Head First books are usually good - with a fairly light-hearted, humorous approach for starters - and their "Head First Programming" book is Python based. ( http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596802387.do?sortby=publ... )

Does it have to be a book ? Maybe a subscription to something like Code School ( http://www.codeschool.com ) would also be quite cool, as they have courses like "Try Ruby" and "Rails for Zombies" .