Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This book covers most of the basic mechanics of bridge, some basics on how to lead a hand, plus no-trump, major- and minor-suit opening bids and responses, assuming silent opponents. That's it. What it covers, it covers very well. Grant provides some insight to the novice about why you would bid a certain way, so you'll come out with an understanding of why noncompetitive bidding works the way it does. But you'll need another source before you'll actually be able to play your first game, and you'll outgrow the information in this book *very* quickly. Two major complaints: 1. I wish that the author had at least covered all of the mechanics and scoring rules of the game, even if very briefly, so that the book could serve as a complete introduction. For example, Grant mentions double bids, but does not devote even a sentence to how they work. She does, however, devote a sentence to letting the reader know that she will cover double bids in the next book in the series. This leads me to my next complaint: 2. The book has clearly been created by a slick marketing machine, and is rife with ads ads ads for the next book in this series, books in other series, bridge software, bridge magazines, etc. It presents incomplete information so as to lock you into the series, thus making you pay $30 (for books 1-3) for *less* information (since those books don't cover declarer or defender play) than is available for $15 in other more-complete introductory bridge texts, such as in Bridge for Dummies or the Complete Idiot's Guide to Bridge. All in all, this book is expensive for what you get, and I don't think it's worth the price. By the way, the American Contract Bridge League offers *wonderful* free learning software that I'd recommend you start out with before buying any book at all. Also, is it just me, or do many of the reviews of all three (so far) books in this series read like shill reviews? EDIT: The more I learn about bridge, the lower my opinion of this book gets. Stay away.