The Cardturner

This may be slightly spoilerific. So tread carefully?

All in all, good book. It's not gonna stay in my head for forever, but I enjoyed it. Particularly, learning more about bridge was cool. You hear the word bridge thrown around a lot, usually in the context of the elderly, but I've never really cared much to learn about the game. It's really interesting to learn more about it. It's a really intense game and takes a lot of intelligence and skill, and has definitely gained my respect.
Alton was a good main character, though he was entirely too trusting of his “best friend” (what an a-hole!), and too accommodating of his greedy parents (seriously? not even gonna hide the fact that you're just waiting for the guy to die so you can get some money?). But he's a sweet kid, and smart. Kind of blah at times, but I was rooting for him.
Trapp was awesome. Wish I had a cool great-uncle who shared random bouts of wisdom whilst buying me new cars. My only beef with him was that he completely underestimated Alton, but he definitely came around in the end.
I would have loved Toni, except for the fact that she was ever with Cliff (Alton's bff) in the first place. I kinda wanted her to be able to look past his “charm.” I guess nobody's perfect.