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THE INTREPID WAY

HOW TO CREATE THE FREEDOM YOU NEED TO LIVE THE LIFE YOU WANT! (2006 REVISED EDITION)

Lacks detail, but motivated self-starters may find a few nuggets of wisdom.

An entrepreneur shares his formula for success.

Chan (TurnKey Investing with Lease-Options, 2004, etc.), once an in-demand technology consultant, found his career path too limiting–like most professionals, his income was dependent upon how long and how hard he worked. He could charge higher consulting fees, but he could only work so many hours in a day. If he stopped working, his income would stop. To break free from this daily grind, he embarked on a new path, along which he developed the philosophy contained here. The fundamental principle of “The Intrepid Way” focuses on achieving personal freedom, which includes not only financial freedom, but also freedom of time. His strategy is based on income layers, which generate continuous income with little or no work or oversight required; many of the author’s revenue streams involve real estate and the Internet. Rather than outlining specific methods for creating income layers, however, Chan describes his own journey toward personal freedom, and how he can maintain the same level of success working as few as ten hours per week. He discusses the reactions of his friends and family to his decision to quit his job, and the emotional and intellectual support systems he had to create when others abandoned him. A thought-provoking introduction to an alternative way of conceiving wealth and work, The Intrepid Way meanders through the development of Chan’s philosophy and repeatedly rails against the narrow-minded people he’s encountered along the way. But readers will likely be disappointed that the author only briefly touches on a few concrete methods for creating wealth. To learn more, one must read his “TurnKey Investor” books.

Lacks detail, but motivated self-starters may find a few nuggets of wisdom.

Pub Date: June 21, 2006

ISBN: 1-933723-07-6

Page Count: -

Publisher: N/A

Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010

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I AM OZZY

An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.

The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.

Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.

An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.

Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009

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NUTCRACKER

This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)

Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996

ISBN: 0-15-100227-4

Page Count: 136

Publisher: Harcourt

Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996

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