Holiday gifts for bridge players

If you're looking for gifts for your friends and relatives who play bridge (or who would like to learn), here are some recently published -- and recommended -- books.

Bridge books published in 2009-10:

The Cardturner  (General interest)
By Louis Sachar. An entertaining novel about a teenager's relationship with his uncle and his discovery of the world's greatest game. There are plenty of bridge tips and deals here and a story featuring humor, romance and mystery.

The Devil's Tickets: A Night of Bridge, a Fatal Hand, and a New American Age  (General interest)
By Gary Pomerantz. A thoroughly researched account of the 1929 murder of John Bennett, who was shot by his wife, Myrtle, after he mangled the play of a 4S contract. The story includes many anecdotes and an ensemble of 1920s characters, including Ely Culbertson and Fightin' Jim Reed, the U.S. senator from Kansas City who successfully defended Myrtle at trial.

Bridge at the Enigma Club  (General interest)
By Peter Winkler. A bridge novel that relates the character's new partnership with a mysterious woman and her methods for using encrypted, but legal signals.

Secrets Your Bridge Friends Never Tell You  (General interest)
By Cathy Winkler. A humorous look at the ups and downs of playing bridge and the journey of progressing from beginner to expert. The author offers advice about a wide range of issues, from how to find and keep partners to playing with your spouse to hiring pros. 

Wait-A-Minute Bridge (Beginner to intermediate)
By David Stevens.  Subtitled "A Complete System for Bridge Beginners and Advancing Players", this book uses a stop-action format to encourage the reader to think through bidding, play and defense problems.

Take All Your Chances at Bridge  (Intermediate)
By Eddie Kantar. Winner of the 2010 Bridge Book of the Year award from the American Bridge Teachers Association. Great advice, lots of examples and an entertaining writing style from this prolific and popular author.

Breaking the Bridge Rules: First Hand Play  (Intermediate to advanced)
By Barry Rigal. Knowing when to break the guidelines for bidding and play is one of the marks of an expert player. This is the first of a planned four-book series that focuses on situations where you need to do something that seems to go against the old advice, but is the killing lead or play. 

Logical Bridge Play (Master Bridge Series)  (Intermediate to advanced)
By Hugh Kelsey. A new printing of an excellent guide to how experts reason out the best line of play or defense. The book teaches the reader how to make the correct inferences and deductions and how to assess timing issues.  

Bridge books on Kindle  -- A wide range of new and old titles are now available in electronic format for the Kindle, Amazon.com's e-book reader.

Games, magazines and software:

Learn to Play Bridge I & II are two self-teaching software programs that make great stocking stuffers for anyone who wants an easy introduction to the basics. Best of all, both are totally free from ACBL. You can download them from the link above (both setup programs fit onto one CD) and give copies to everyone on your list. Print out copies of ACBL's quick-start How to Play Bridge page to go with your gifts. 

aBRIDGEd game (Beginner) is a box game that's as close as you can get to "real" bridge, without the complexities of bidding. The set includes color-coded cards and simple rules that can be learned in 20 minutes. It's a great introduction to bridge-style card play and bidding principles for children and adults.

Bridge Baron 21 is the newest update of one of the top-rated and most skilled bid-and-play software programs on the market. It features seven sophisticated levels of play, plus a deal generator, double-dummy solver, ACBL tournament deals, challenge hands, flow-chart bidding tutorials and a wide range of conventions. Winner of five World Computer Bridge Championships. Available for Windows and Mac.

Need more ideas? You'll find other books and gift suggestions on these shopping pages just for bridge players:

Karen's Bridge Library Bookstore features short reviews of recommended bridge books, along with an updated listing of the newest books and software. Books are grouped by skill level and can be purchased at discounted prices from Amazon.com by following the links.

The Holiday Shopping Page on the above site offers ideas and links for a wide range of bridge-themed gifts, including clothing, jewelry, bakeware and glassware, party accessories, software packages, electronic games, magazine subscriptions and other specialty gifts.

Great Bridge Links offers a full directory of specialty products and online shopping sites for bridge players. You'll find links to unusual and hard-to-find gifts here, along with some special discounts.