Everything That Matters in Life I Learned from Horses
By Bo Derek with Mark Seal
In this chatty and disarming memoir about her Southern California girlhood, Bo Derek says she started life as a tomboy. Before—at age 17—beginning an affair with (married) producer John Derek, 47, her passions were horses and motorbikes. She still has scars on her leg from a motorcycle crash when she was a girl. From that she devised a motto: Jump before you get thrown.
Her mother, Norma Bass (who was Ann-Margret's stylist), learned of her teenage daughter's affair with Derek by peeking at Bo's diary; Mom promptly slapped her daughter. Bo married John, the father of two grown children, less than three years later, after his divorce from Linda Evans came through. In 1979, she had her cornrowed moment of fame as 10's übercupcake.
After Derek's 1998 death, Bo, now 45 and single, took solace in new friends and more horses. She says she declined Jane Fonda's suggestion that she date Fonda's then-estranged husband, Ted Turner. For the record, Bo says she turned shades of crimson as Fonda confided that Turner was "a great lover." (ReganBooks/HarperCollins, $25.95)
Bottom Line: A stable effort
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