The /books directory contains the complete rails app. Depending on your version of rails (this was built with 2.2.2 on Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard), it should run locally on port 3000 simply by changing to the books directory in Terminal and typing script/server.
The /MobileBooks directory contains the Xcode project, minus the build directory. You should be able to compile it using any 3.x iPhone SDK.
In the Classes subdirectory of the MobileBooks project, you'll find a roughly 1.1-version copy of the ObjectiveResource library that you can copy into your project.
Thanks, and don't hesitate to contact me with questions.