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| Tattoos on My Soul: From the Ghetto to the Top of the World | 
 enlarge | Author: Burrel Lee Wilks
Publisher: Burrel Streetwise
Category: Book
List Price: $23.95
Buy Used: $8.45
You Save: $15.50 (65%)
New (24) Used (21) Collectible (2) from $8.45
Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 770534
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 205
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 0976873605
Dewey Decimal Number: 364.1092
EAN: 9780976873600
ASIN: 0976873605
Publication Date: April 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Former library copy with stamps and stickers.Book cover in good condition.Pages appear clean and unmarked.Same or next day shipping. All orders tracked.
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Product Description
Looking into the head and heart of a man who rose above a life of narcotics, violence, and fast money to become someone with his own voice and dreams, this memoir humanizes the dilemma many youngsters face today and underscores the role the streets play as both proving ground and educational institution. By the age of 9, Buddy Burrel was a millionaire with his own flourishing crime empire, having followed in the footsteps of his iron-willed, often-brutal father, a West-Side Chicago kingpin. A gang chief in the powerful Vice Lords family at the age of 11, Burrel attracted the attention of Tony "Big Tuna" Accardo, an infamous boss of the Chicago outfit, under whose tutelage he rose to become a serious player at the age of 16. Yet after realizing he had the wherewithal to lead a different life, Burrel turned from ghetto grit—his father's house, the gangs, the hard drugs, and the streets—to glitz and glamour. Immersed in a world of coast-to-coast living, golf, gambling, and entrepreneurism, populated with idiosyncratic characters and underscored by a painful emotional awakening, he eventually broke away from the dark side with his spirit, heart, and hopefulness intact.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
 Weak, but mildly amusing October 14, 2006
5 out of 9 found this review helpful
If you can get past the over-the-top exagerations, you might even finish this book.
Example (pages 57 & 58):
"The most gut-wrenching loss I personally experienced was a $10 million betting disaster when I was 17."
"They were all kingpins, sitting on ridiculous cash surpluses."
"They played, as did I, soley with C-notes..."
"The pot was brewing, $30 million strong..."
$30 million is the equivilent of 300,000 C-notes...just how big was the table?
 A true inspiration for personal transformation! May 6, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
What a mesmorizing account of this man's life! I couldn't put the book down.
Burrel Wilks' brutally frank and unapologetic autobiography is gritty, intelligent and in-your-face, with a colorful cast of characters most of us could only imagine through fiction. Wilks' street smarts, resoursefulness and sense of humanity distinguishes him from many of his peers on the inner-city Chicago streets where he, his family, and friends lived. A powerful testament to the man.
This book is a true inspriation for personal transformation. I highly recommend it to all!
An amazing, page turning story. May 6, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I really enjoyed this book. When I picked it up I wasn't sure what to expect but it has not disappointed. It is the most amazing life story (so far) of a young boy born into a life of drug dealing, gangs and organised crime. It follows the tale of Burrel as he grows up, as he makes illegal millions only to lose it all. How on earth he lived to tell the tale is a mystery. What he has done however, is turned his experiences into positives, this is a real story of ethics and transformation. This book offers two things, a real insiders account into the gang culture and crime worlds of Chicago. It is also a great read, compelling and incredible. I couldn't put it down. If you want to deepen your understanding of gang culture this is for you but if you just want a great page-turner of a story this is it too.
So true and so powerful! November 8, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The first thing that called my attention was the book's title. I got totally hooked on this true story of a man who survived the best and the worst - many times in the same day. Burrel's story stood up to the powerful title. His character, his persona, his friends jump out of the page from beginning to end. I was very impressed that he had courage and determination not only to get out of the thug-business, but also to tell everything to the public. It's a story of survival indeed. Told by a man who has been there, seen that, done that. And that's one of the reasons that Burrel has the authority to talk about crime, drugs and the worst of the world with clarity and knowledge to people around the world - not just ghettos.
REAL TATTOOS November 11, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
It's raw reality, hard to swallow-but still true! He shows the glamour and the seduction of a successful gang leader, but as you keep on reading, he makes clear how shallow, empty and lifeless was his life. How easy to get in and how hard to get out! It trilled me to follow the thoughts that would lead him to get out of it all. Finally, he ends up giving it back - a confession to inspire personal growth without being a self-help book.
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