Play like a pro with expert knowledge from a champion of the game

If you don't know the ins and outs of play, bridge can seem like an intimidating game--but it doesn't have to be! Armed with the techniques and strategies in the pages of this book, you'll be bidding and winning hands like a boss! A good book for beginners, it has lots of advanced techniques useful to experienced players, too. This is as  close to an all-in-one bridge book you can get.

 

 

About the Author

H. Anthony Medley holds the rank of Silver life Master, is an American Contract Bridge League Club Director, and has won regional and sectional titles. An attorney, he received his B.S. from UCLA, where he was sports editor of UCLA's Daily Bruin, and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law. He is the author of UCLA Basketball: The Real Story and Sweaty Palms: The Neglected Art of Being Interviewed and The Complete Idiots Guide to Bridge. He was a columnist for the Southern California Bridge News. He is an MPAA-certified film critic and his work has appeared nationally in Good Housekeeping, The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, The Hollywood Reporter, and other publications. Click the book to order.
 

  

 

Downton Abbey (8/10)

by Tony Medley

Runtime 122 minutes

PG

I might be the only person who never watched one second of the PBS series Downton Abbey, so I went into it knowing nothing. Movies should stand on their own but when producers make a TV series that lasts, what, five years? and then choose to end it by making a feature film that wraps everything up, one might think that without exposure to what came before, sitting through this would be a drag.

And, to be truthful, the first half hour did crawl by. But then it picked up and I actually enjoyed it. I doubt that I want to sit binging through the many years the series existed, but this movie was worth the sit.

For those as clueless as I was, this is the story of the Crawley Family, upper crust Brits who own a huge estate in the early 20th Century. It’s about them and their large crew of servants. Directed by Michael Endler and written by Julian Fellowes, it has a huge cast including Matthew Goode, Elizabeth McGovern, and Maggie Smith.

While that may sound less than compelling, it is actually quite interesting once you get the hang of it. This wraps it up with a visit from King George V (Simon Jones) and Queen Mary (Geraldine James) and involves the jealousy of their arrogant staff and the retaliation by the staff of Downton Abbey. Interspersed are all the relationship problems that have apparently lingered for the entire series.

The acting is superb and the production values second to none; in fact it is so beautiful to watch that almost upstages the story. And after the story picks up, it definitely holds interest and keeps a fine pace.

 

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