We assume that the title of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s new memoir is meant to be ironic. "Total Recall: My Unbelievably True Life Story" treats the bulk of his life lightly: a recitation of his experiences as bodybuilder, movie star, and politician is peppered with a handful of cursory denials and apologies for scandals like groping women he worked with and referring to his male colleagues as “girlie men.” It does, however, include sixty-four glossy photographs of Arnold in his various careers. It also contains some things we’d rather not know about, such as his affair with cult sci-fi film Red Sonja co-star Brigitte Nielsen  while he was living with soon-to-be wife Maria Shriver -- which he describes as “hot.” [via the Examiner]

For the people who remember him, or perhaps as a last-ditch effort to enter the minds of those who don’t, Texas data-businessman billionaire Ross Perot has signed a memoir deal with Simon and Schuster to pen a memoir, due out early next year. His 1992 campaign against the ultimately victorious Bill Clinton saw him gain fame as the United States’ most successful third-party presidential candidate to date, and is likely to provide fodder for this book’s most interesting pages. [via the Sacramento Bee]

Donnie, Danny, Joe, Jordan and Jon are stars again in music writer Nikki Van Noy’s new biography about 1990s boy band New Kids on the Block. After the release of their 1988 album “Hangin’ Tough,” they outranked both Michael Jackson and Madonna on Forbes’ highest-paid entertainers list. Riding on nostalgia over their musical impact, NKOTB is experiencing a comeback of sorts, performing cruise concerts stocked with the women who were their original tween fans. Here’s hoping their written story gets plenty of action, too.  [via the Huffington Post]

Nigeria’s greatest literary export, Chinua Achebe, has written a personal account of wartime that will land in the United States on October 11. Known globally for novels like Things Fall Apart and Arrow of God, Achebe served as cultural ambassador for Biafran during Nigeria’s 1967 civil war, as the province attempted independence from a brutally repressive Nigerian government, and until now, has written about those days of war only in a handful of poems. Although one review characterizes his life story as filled with sadness, we look forward to yet another example of his ability to treat even tragic circumstances clearly, in beautifully redeeming language. [via BBC News]

Perhaps it’s inevitable when sidling up close enough to the late U.S. Supreme Court chief justice William H. Rehnquist to write his biography that one might end up with a less than objective opinion. According to reviews, biographer John A. Jenkins has done just that, his “The Partisan: The Life of William Rehnquist” falling on the side of “not a fan.” After combing through the judge’s  archives and the papers of his colleagues, Jenkins finds him wanting not only as a fellow human being -- a man whose tremendous intellect was outweighed by a petty and egocentric personality -- but also as a judicial presence, calling his work “nihilistic, disrespectful of precedent, and racist even by the standards of that era.” [via the Wall Street Journal]