Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich
I read an article about the MIT blackjack team around six years ago which absolutely fascinated me. It was, in hindsight, probably some kind of promotional tie-in to the book Bringing Down the House by Ben Mezrich, which would have been new at the time. The idea that a secretive team of MIT whiz kids were using their intelligence to get one over on big business was immensely attractive, but for whatever reason I totally forgot about the book until just a few months ago when I saw it on sale with the movie 21, which is based on it.
Bringing Down the House and the movie The King of Kong show that amazing tales are far more satisfying when they're true. Expertly recounted by fiction writer Mezrich, Bringing Down the House reads just like a fictional thriller, with ups, down, villains, sex, drugs and celebrities all whizzing by at a million miles an hour. The MIT whiz kids travel from Boston to Las Vegas, Atlantic City and around the world counting cards and making hundreds of thousands of easy dollars.
Like in The King of Kong it's clear that some events have been embellished (or even plucked out of thin air) to help in this regard, but at the end of the day all that matters is that Bringing Down the House is unputdownable.
(For another incredibly interesting read, check out the blog of former team member Mike Aponte.)