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Ken's review

21: Bringing Down the House - Movie Tie-In
by Ben Mezrich

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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1374244.21_Bringing_Down_the_House_Movie_Tie_In?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="21: Bringing Down the House - Movie Tie-In" border="0" src="http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51PXEfB2JOL._SL160_.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1374244.21_Bringing_Down_the_House_Movie_Tie_In?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">21: Bringing Down the House - Movie Tie-In</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2850.Ben_Mezrich">Ben Mezrich</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/17676465?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  rating: 4 of 5 stars<br/>When I saw the movie trailer I thought that this book would be fun to read. I am an engineer; I like math -- what is not to like about this story? Turns out I was right, this book was fun to read. It is very fast paced and pretty easy to read. They dumb the math down quite a bit and explain everything else really well. The only thing I didn't like was the very end. Three big questions go unanswered: who narked, who was the dude with the gray hair, and who was behind the break-ins? I guess that is the way it is in real life; everyone has suspicions but no one really knows for sure. 
<br/>
<br/>It was interesting to see the engineer mindset at work. The main character (Kevin) reminded me a lot of myself. Before he agreed to be on the blackjack team he needed to be reassured that what they were doing was not illegal. Kevin also knew that his father wouldn't understand and was afraid to tell him about it. This made Kevin feel like he was breaking some sort of rule, which really appealed to him. I also found it interesting in the way he described his relationship with an NFL cheerleader. In Vegas he was a big-shot, having a cheerleader girlfriend was normal. At home he realized that she was out of his league. In fact, the only time they were together was while he was in Vegas. The allure of living life on the edge kept him going to Vegas, but he knew that at home he had a steady job and a father whose expectations he had to meet. Luckily he was smart enough to listen to the little engineer in his head and get back to a normal life before he got beat up, unlike some of his other teammates. 
  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/672934?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Ken's review
rating:

** spoiler alert ** When I saw the movie trailer I thought that this book would be fun to read. I am an engineer; I like math -- what is not to like about this story? Turns out I was right, this book was fun to read. It is very fast paced and pretty easy to read. They dumb the math down quite a bit and explain everything else really well. The only thing I didn't like was the very end. Three big questions go unanswered: who narked, who was the dude with the gray hair, and who was behind the break-ins? I guess that is the way it is in real life; everyone has suspicions but no one really knows for sure.

It was interesting to see the engineer mindset at work. The main character (Kevin) reminded me a lot of myself. Before he agreed to be on the blackjack team he needed to be reassured that what they were doing was not illegal. Kevin also knew that his father wouldn't understand and was afraid to tell him about it. This made Kevin feel like he was breaking some sort of rule, which really appealed to him. I ...more

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message 1: by Mary Jane

03/14/2008 01:54PM

I look forward to your review on this. I watched a documentary on this story a few years ago and it was really interesting. I haven't been as excited for the movie...eventhough it isn't rated R.