It's Only Rock 'N' Roll: 30 Years Married to a Rolling Stone

Memoirs written by rock stars' former spouses usually have an axe to grind or want to cash in on somebody else's fame. However, Jo Wood, who spent three decades as the girlfriend and then wife of Rolling Stones guitarist Ron Wood, actually treats "the unbelievably sexy" man with "little beady eyes, a big nose and no mouth" more than fairly here. A British model at 15, the former Josephine Karslake was a 22-year-old single mother when she met Wood, who introduced himself at a party by showing her the cover of the Stones' 1976 album, Black and Blue. An extravagant partier, she offers candid details of sex and drugs, but not much rock'n'roll. Jo's dream life eventually fell apart, first from a misdiagnosis of Crohn's disease and later when Ronnie began dating an 18-year-old, which led to his divorce from Jo in 2009. Stories about Keith Richards bring comic relief, and the final chapters detail the 58-year-old's forays into television and the organic-products business%E2%80%94though by then, her overuse of the term "adored" and constant referencing of the Stones as "the boys", along with her eager writing style, grow tiresome. Still, it's an interesting alternate view of the Stones legacy. (June)