BRINGING DOWN THE HOUSE (Ben Mezrich) - March 21/08

This entertaining but slight account of MIT card counters moves at a quick pace, admittedly, but is ultimately far from fresh. The arc of the story feels like a second-rate Scorsese flick, and Mezrich tends to employ dialogue that sounds just a little too perfect. Still, it's quite readable and rarely dull (well, except when the author dwells on the mathematical formulas for counting cards). *** out of ****