[Jinksy]

I know there's a forum for single reviews, but I was curious about an overview, since I've been a bit dissatisfied with my book-learning recently - what books do people feel like they profited the most from reading (instructional, not bridge fiction) and why?

My currents faves fwiw (and in case it helps you recommend stuff for me specifically):

Klinger, Guide to Better Card Play (very basic, but I got huge amounts from the density of the problems)
Lederman, A Bridge to Simple Squeezes (again basic, but no other book on squeezes made me feel comfortable that I'd just got the basic concept before moving on to more sophisticated stuff)
Mollo, Card Play Technique (fun to read, not as many problems as I'd have liked as a result, but concepts explained well)
Mollo, Case for the Defence (not actually sure why I got along with this better than other problem books - possibly because the problems were simple enough that I felt like I might have a real chance of getting them at the table once I'd been through it a couple of times. Most of the problem books I read now feel too far removed from the kind of thinking I'd be able to do in a timed game)
Kelsey, Improve Your Opening Leads (I really liked the isolation of a small part of the game. Helped me feel like I could actually get to grips with the subject)
Martens, Opening Lead (ditto, + nice density of problems. Martens' other books look too advanced for me, but after reading Kelsey's I felt like I could deal with this one)
Lawrence, How to Read Your Opponents' Cards (again focused on some very specific situations, such that I felt reasonably comfortable that I could really get to grips with them)
Bird, Famous Bidding Decisions (not sure that Bird is good enough at gauging the confidence he should have in his opinion well enough for this to be superbly instructional - as when he confidently claims that Rodwell made an obviously wrong decision for eg - but lots of problems on the challenges of mostly high level bidding judgement)

I guess the common theme is that I increasingly like books that isolate some small aspect of the game and focus intently on it, while giving you a lot of tests to stop and challenge yourself.

[bluecalm]

Nice collection.
Rodwell Files is very nice. Huge introductionary/basic part and then even advanced part is easy to grasp and contains a lot of useful and practical stuff. Highly recommended
I also remember this old Kelsey book which got me started in bridge. "Countdown to better bridge" I believe was the title. I've read it 10 years ago when I was first learning the game so I don't remember much other than being impressed.
As to Kelsey I also think "Killing defence" is remarkably good and 2nd part ("More...") is great as well but much more difficult.
I would stay away from books about bidding. People are generally very bad at writing those and I am yet to see one which doesn't contain a lot of very bad advice and/or information.
There is one I would like to recommend: "Win the Bermuda Bowl with Me" by Meckstroth/Smith. It's not bidding or cardplay book specifically, more like collection of hands with nice commentary but it contains a lot of practical advice and hey, the hands are real hands played by the best partnership in the history. I think attitude to bidding which Meckstroth demonstrates in it will do more good for your game than all other bidding books possibly could.

[JLOGIC]

Anything by kelsey and reese

[gszes]

bridge squeezes complete by clyde e love provides a great "formula" for how to guage
the practicaility of a huge number of squeezes. There are tons of examples but no story
lines if you also like entertainment vs strictly education.

[phil_20686]

You are missing a lot of classics.
Kelsey: killing defence at bridge, more killing defence at bridge, logical bridge play.
Kelsey also wrote a collection of books on squeezes, which I found much better than love's more famous one.
Reece : the expert game, advanced card play technique
Pottage: master pieces of defence, master pieces of declarer play. These have two of the nicest collections of fairly ordinary yet instructive hands.

[SteveMoe]

Much depends on the level you seek.

I favor Kantar, Reese, Kelsey, Lawrence, Rodwell and Root in line with above posters. I think Kantar's Modern Defense series (2) and Take All Your Tricks / Chances books (3) are must reads.

You might find inspiration in some of these compilations:

CBA Good Books

Baron Barclay Book Recommendations This is parsed by level and topic.

ACBL Recommended Reading This has the Experts Top 10 list from a few years back.

Krzysztof Martens' books can be quite dense and obscure, but they certainly do challenge how we think about the game.

I liked "Deadly Defence (Master Bridge Series)" by Wladyslaw Izdebski, Roman Krzemien, & Ron Klinger (2011) along with Bird's recent book on Defensive Signaling at Bridge (2011).

[Jinksy]

I should clarify that I've read Logical Bridge Play, much of Killing Defence and Kelsey's squeeze books, some of the Rodwell Files (and a few others by Reese and Kelsey), and quite like all 3, but they're not in my top tier of books I've really gained from, since they're not so focused as the titles I mentioned above (also Kelsey's bidding gets quite annoying in KD - I basically need someone to annotate the book for me so I know what to expect from declarer's hand). I'll have a look at Kantar's stuff, anyway. Ta all - chuck any further recommendaitons you can think of my way.