Bridge Books

Architecture and Construction is the tenth issue of Scholastic's voyages of discovery. It is excellent for children to learn the different works of architecture around the world. It also shows how the structures were made and stories about famous architects.

This book shows all kinds of architectural monuments. From Paris pyramids to icy igloos, from Parthenon pillars to building bridges, this book is definetly one you have to buy!

This book covers architecture works from six of the seven world continents. It also shows the different kinds of houses in the world and many tall skyscrapers. You also get a free 1883 newspaper article marking the celebrations for the Brooklyn Bridge.

This fabulous book would appeal to people in the age group of 6 to 13. You have to buy it!

Very detailed explanations of the various scenes of the battle. Provides deeper insight into what went wrong.

This book provides the reader with a sufficient knowledge on the bidding and the bridge conventions, and yet it is so easy to understand! I'm grateful to come across it when I'm looking for books on bidding; a must-have for those who wishes to improve and master on bidding.

Why did so many artists portray bridges in their works? In Artist and the BridgeSJohn Sweetman traces the history of the bridge in prints and painting, using a range of works by many artists to reveal both the characteristics of the bridge and the interests of the artist in producing it. The coverage is extensive, covering a range of eras in art history and tracing the changing image of the bridge in artists' works.

Hammans bridge career is quite interesting. I didn't know that he had been in the Bermuda Bowl before the Aces. Reading about some of the Aces training methods (the group criticism, and allocation charges for misplays) was interesting. There are plenty of funny stories thrown in.
Lots of interesting hands. Certainly a good biography.

But for me, there was a lot more. Hamman is famous for not getting rattled and putting bad hands behind him. There was Hammans discussion of certain conventions, and what he percieves as negative trends in Bridge.

Of all the bridge biographies I've read, I liked this the best.

This book is a wonderful reference tool for any leadership class. It lays an awesome foundation that coincides with Matthew 20:27 and is a must have for any emerging leader in the church and the secular world. The principles in this text are timeless! I recommend it highly!

You know, there are only about twenty permissible words in bridge bidding: the name and number of the suit, "Pass," "Double," and "Redouble." Yet from that comes one of the most fascinating games the world has ever known and Grant is on top of it all.

BETTER BRIDGE: Bidding is an excellent book. In fact, the best beginner's book (and series) I have encountered for the now-dominant "Five Card Major" bidding system now "de rigeur" in most of the USA and Canada. (If you don't know what "four card" or "five card" systems mean, hold off on buying this volume and go for Audrey's "Basics" volume instead.)

Ms. Grant goes patiently through the rules of bidding, when to bend or break them, and when they can save your life! As in most books, she starts with simple opening bids and the "point count" system (where an Ace is worth 4 points, a King 3, Queen 2 and Jack one point). She concentrates on the all-important fit between you and your partner, sometimes called "an opening hand facing an opening hand equals game" and that strategy is where the game is right now, so to speak. She deals with the additive logic of the point count in finding the Three Notrump game bid, which is relatively easy, often much easier than the novice thinks it is.

But where Grant really shines is the emphasis on contracting for game with a total of eight cards in your and your partner's chosen major suit (hearts or spades), either five on one side of the table and three on the other, or four apiece (and all this from bridge's tiny bidding vocab). Going further, she deals with what to do when your opponents are messing up "your" system by intefering bidding. Along with Grant's simple, even charming teaching styles, two other interlocked benefits stand out: she teaches us to think for ourself BUT offers evidence to show how violating bidding conventions gets you into bad contracts where you go set (lose points to your opponents). In other words, she does a good deal of imparting wisdom, more so than most bridge books allow that the very novice is capable of.

So read "Basics," "Bidding" and then move on to the other books in this series. You'll not only get smarter, you'll have fun and as long as there are three other people, a pencil, a deck of cards and a pad of paper around, you will never run out of something to do!

(By the way, if you want to learn the kind of bridge in which any FOUR-card major can open bidding, you might enjoy Alfred Sheinwold's FIVE WEEKS TO WINNING BRIDGE, which takes you from the basics, the bidding, and even the play at a fairly advanced level. Quite a lot for a one-volume work.)

This is a fun story involving wonderful characters who create a mechanical horse and wind up in all sorts of trouble when they enter it in an actual horse race! The illustrations are incredibly creative too, and makes it even more entertaining when reading the story. This book is very enjoyable! A definite bed-time story for the family bookshelf! Your kids will want to read it again and again!

A high technology disk is found in an old Inca dig in Peru. If the disk (a small CD-ROM) really is over 1000 years old, then our technology has just reached the point to read it -- as prophesized in the text itself as they unravel the symbols. The language is ancient Aymara. This book is fast paced and is based on an intriguing plausibility of how the Inca civilization may have advanced so quickly.

The disk is processed through several decryption programs without success, but it is Diana Travest's knowledge of the ancient Peruvian language of Aymara that helps Matt Sousa find the Key of Keys (KoK). They need more information before announcing such a find -- if it is not a true antiquity, it will destroy their reputations as archaeologists. Translations of the small, encrypted file refer to "The Source." They must return to Peru to find it.

Meanwhile, the Sendero Luminoso, a revolutionary group, needs money for weapons. The group has internal conflict, and has not paid for their last shipment. They will, however, force their buyer (whose identity is no longer hidden from them) to front the money himself.

R J Fanler, a multi-millionaire entrepreneur is working on a way to process data. The technology that he wants to develop is as different as a computer is from a typewriter; an upgrade of that magnitude could drive old established companies to "catch up," or perhaps dry up. He also is fascinated by space and unexplained mysteries, and he will finance the dig.

These various forces are on separate paths, but they will clash over this discovery. Matt Sousa is a graduate student in Archaeology; he found the original disk. His colleague, the woman he loves, is kidnapped. Matt's secret weapons are his Special Forces training; RJ Fanler, the entrepreneur with the money; and a former SF associate. They will try to rescue Professor Diana Travest and the antiquity called "The Source."

Roger Pressman is well known in the world of technology. Author of "Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach," which is required reading for software engineers, and six additional technology books. This is his first venture into fiction, and The Aymara Bridge is a strong combination of a plot and character driven novel, with the additions of international intrigue, high finances, ideologies, and guerilla tactics. I could not put it down.

All of the elements that make a great movie are in place in The Aymara Bridge. I could see Ben Affleck as Matt Sousa; Sandra Bullock, Nicole Kidman or Cameron Diaz as his colleague and lover Diana Travest, and Brad Pitt as RJ Fanler, the entrepreneur technologist.

The Aymara Bridge is a five star read.

Victoria Tarrani

Every outdoorsman should own this book. For everyone who has felt misunderstood, in why you pursue outdoor interests. This is a must have. I gave one to a lady who called me a "Bambi Killer". After reading these accounts from the heart of a hunter, she later appologized, and offered sole permission to hunt on her property. Even asking if I might teach her son. All from reading about these "Lessons of life, learned through outdoor experiences".