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    Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story
    Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story
    Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story
    Audiobook23 hours

    Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story

    Written by Arnold Schwarzenegger

    Narrated by Arnold Schwarzenegger and Stephen Lang

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    In his signature larger-than-life style, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Total Recall is a revealing self-portrait of his illustrious, controversial, and truly unique life.

    The greatest immigrant success story of our time.

    His story is unique, and uniquely entertaining, and he tells it brilliantly in these pages.

    He was born in a year of famine, in a small Austrian town, the son of an austere police chief. He dreamed of moving to America to become a bodybuilding champion and a movie star.

    By the age of twenty-one, he was living in Los Angeles and had been crowned Mr. Universe.

    Within five years, he had learned English and become the greatest bodybuilder in the world.

    Within ten years, he had earned his college degree and was a millionaire from his business enterprises in real estate, landscaping, and bodybuilding. He was also the winner of a Golden Globe Award for his debut as a dramatic actor in Stay Hungry.

    Within twenty years, he was the world’s biggest movie star, the husband of Maria Shriver, and an emerging Republican leader who was part of the Kennedy family.

    Thirty-six years after coming to America, the man once known by fellow body­builders as the Austrian Oak was elected governor of California, the seventh largest economy in the world.

    He led the state through a budget crisis, natural disasters, and political turmoil, working across party lines for a better environment, election reforms, and bipartisan solutions.

    With Maria Shriver, he raised four fantastic children. In the wake of a scandal he brought upon himself, he tried to keep his family together.

    Until now, he has never told the full story of his life, in his own voice.

    Here is Arnold, with total recall.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateOct 1, 2012
    ISBN9781442353268
    Author

    Arnold Schwarzenegger

    Arnold Schwarzenegger served as governor of California from 2003 to 2011. Before that, he had a long career, starring in such films as the Terminator series; Stay Hungry; Twins; Predator; and Junior. His first book, Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder, was a bestseller when published in 1977 and, along with his Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding, has never been out of print. He is the author of Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life and Arnold, a limited docuseries about his life, is currently streaming on Netflix.

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    Reviews for Total Recall

    4.5/5

    334 ratings33 reviews

    What did you think?

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    • 5/5
      Great story . The man had many talents I was not aware of.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Amazing story, thoroughly enjoyed it!
      It is a Must read
    • 5/5
      This was an amazing listen, describing the life of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Very enjoyable. I highly recommend. Describes the ups and downs of an interesting individual.
    • 5/5
      there's no one like Arnold. Amazing Life amazing book. great.
    • 5/5
      This is a most have to anyone who want achive goals in his life!
    • 5/5
      Unbelievable powerful inspiring book! Great man and great life !
    • 5/5
      A deep look into the life of one of the most influential and successful immigrants to ever come to the U.S. Entertaining, educational, and easy to follow makes this a must-read for people of all ages. Don’t miss this one.
    • 5/5
      Amazing book! Highly recommend. Arnold is a role model as a bodybuilder, businessman and self-made man.
    • 5/5
      what A great inspiration the way how he lived his life
    • 5/5
      Great book. Loved it. This is a book you can listen to over and over again!
    • 5/5
      What a book! One of the best autobiographies I've read. I loved every minute of it. Brought back some nice memories from childhood.
    • 5/5
      Inspirational and captivating. Truly enjoyed the story of success and hard work
    • 3/5
      This was a little bit to long in my opinion
    • 4/5
      It was nice to go through Arnold’s life story. Unbelievable achievements.
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed learning about Arnold’s life. I honestly didn’t want the book to end! I found his book incredibly inspirational and plan to use one of his inspirational speeches I found on YouTube for my HS senior class to inspire them to have always have a vision and to always stay hungry!
    • 5/5
      I loved it and was totally entertained and inspired! Amazing
    • 5/5
      Long, but great book. Arnold life is impressive and inspiring.
    • 5/5
      a great person, a great story. this man inspire to have bigger dreams and work harder to achieve them.
    • 5/5
      This memoir definitely showed you the behind the scenes of Arnolds life definitely recommend!
    • 4/5
      Little long but I am glad I read the book. Got to know his upbringing and his work during his governor years . Inspiring
    • 5/5
      Amazing story, it's like going back to my childhood and see how an immigrant like me made it!
    • 4/5
      Good book, a little boring at times, but I’m glad i read it. Especially interesting the insider view of the difficulties of getting things done while governor of California.
    • 5/5
      I had no idea how impressive this guy was. Wow.
    • 5/5
      How can you not just Love Arnold? It was really interesting to learn about his life and how he became successful.
    • 4/5
      I thoroughly enjoyed this! I like Arnold, the man, the actor, his humour, his opinions and a lot of his politics. I'm not into sports and thought the bodybuilding would be the least interesting for me but I found the whole thing fascinating. This is a huge book and instead of just sitting down and plowing through I decided to take it a chapter at a time and am so glad I did. The book is 30 chapters long and I ended up spending a month sitting down each night and feeling like I was having a little visit (incl. beer & stogey LOL) with the man himself. You can tell the book was co-written but Arnold's voice is there, one can hear the stilted English, the accent and the voice. I would have enjoyed more time spent on each individual movie but I don't think 1000+ pages would have been marketable. Realistically, the book was proportioned very well. A good chunk of an introduction on his childhood and life in Austria and then a lot of time devoted to body-building which then crosses over with his acting career before he gives up the sport. Arnold is a very intelligent man and that comes through from the beginning. He's also a politically aware person and political opinions pepper the pages right from his landing on American shores and increase as he becomes involved in Republican presidential campaigning and becomes a part of the Kennedy family. His acting and love story with Maria take up the next chunk and finally his career as governor ends the book. I found Arnold to be everything I had supposed him to be: opinionated, fair, full of himself, not into bad-mouthing anyone, deeply in love with Maria, a family man and seriously funny. In a way the book is an ode and apology to Maria; the two are still not divorced nor seem to be in any rush to finalize the proceedings (at the time of this writing). He presents himself fairly, being able to criticize himself throughout his life but he is also a man who is entirely 100% confident in himself. I liked his style, I liked his humour, I liked the book. I'm not keen on his in-betweener politics as governor and found that section the most slow going but with such a varied career: body building, acting and politics, it's unlikely many will be enthralled with every detail of his life. I do think though, that if you personally do not like the man himself, you will not like the book. This is Arnold's story about himself and Arnold is full of self-love and self-confidence. So if you admire or simply like/enjoy the man you'll enjoy the book as I did. However, if not, the tone of the book will likely get your hackles up if you start off annoyed with the man in the first place. A great read and I wish him all the best in the future.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      It's been said before, but the first half of this book is really the only part worth reading. If it had ended there another star would be forthcoming. I suppose it's possible that some folks might enjoy all the politics of part two, but that's not what I was looking for when it comes to Arnold's story.
    • 3/5
      If you know who [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]] is, and who doesn't, there aren't surprises here. The real accomplishment is the voice in which this is written, straightforward and easy to believe is Arnold's voice. It isn't enough to sustain over 600pgs of interest with lots of pictures that don't take up page numbers and 100pgs of index. Arnold is close to me in age and lived in Los Angeles when I moved here so the early chapters of the book are most involving to me.
    • 2/5


      The American Dream embodied, and he knows it. Likes talking about money.
    • 5/5
      This is a superb account of Arnold’s life from his childhood through to 2012.The narrative is engaging throughout, though I admit to not being so absorbed by the later chapters that focus on politics. Arnold’s childhood and rise to fame are what most interested me.Highly recommended.
    • 3/5
      The first half of the book focuses on Arnold's growing up. Getting interested in weightlifting and the intensity with which he pursued being good at the sport. This intensity eventually brought him to America. Once here he branched out into a few others areas trying to make money to get by and trying to help grow the bodybuilding sport. This part of the book, about the first half was my favorite and I thought the most interesting.

      He also talks about how he became interested in being in movies and how difficult it was to learn to act and wait for good parts. He discusses what it was like shooting different movies and getting into politics. He ends the book talking about his mistake with the housekeeper and how he hopes to make things better with his wife Maria (they are still not divorced last I checked).

      Overall a good read and one that I think will encourage you to think hard about how much of yourself you invest in the things you care about. Arnold became successful because of hard work more than any other reason. You have to put in the repetitions and time to get where you want to be.