Cant help much with books, Im a practice learner, but any C++ books will help, just dont bother too much
with the advanced stuff like clases etc just yet, leave that till gamestudio supports it. (it will eventually, I just dont know when)
I dare say C++ for dummies would be perfect, even though Ive never seen it.
Visual C++ for dummies (if it exists) may help you drift from VB to C++ easier.
(Im primarily a VB# (with a touch of C#) programmer myself. )