Word: diana
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...sense what is being billed as the primary newsbreak of Diana in Search of Herself (Times Books; 451 pages; $25), Sally Bedell Smith's biography of the late princess, is not news at all. "Diana's unstable temperament," Smith announces a bit ponderously, "bore all the markings of one of the most elusive psychological disorders: the borderline personality...
Though this "diagnosis" alone sheds virtually no fresh light on the subject, Smith--author of bios of CBS founder William Paley and international socialite Pamela Harriman--amply and sympathetially documents Diana's precarious mental state and her need for sustained professional help, a need that could never have been met while she remained within the netherworlds of Buckingham Palace and celebrity hangers...
Smith conducted nearly 150 interviews and sifted through mounds of articles and books devoted to Diana for this volume. But despite entering an already overcrowded field, Smith has produced a well-written, evenhanded work. There is also, remarkably, still a bit of juice to be squeezed from this particular fruit. The world may have believed Diana was the "people's princess," but Smith unsparingly details how Diana let down almost everyone who knew her--including many of the charities that depended on her for support. And in her own affairs of the heart, she was self-destructive at best. Smith...
...Smith concludes, also highly unlikely that Dodi and Diana were planning to marry. Not only was that final diamond ring he bought her "vulgar," according to a friend, but, Smith writes, "the days they spent alone were a mere 25. They floated along in an existence that was intense and unreal...[Their romance] was perhaps the clearest evidence that she had made little progress in dealing with her demons." Two summers ago, her fans wept, saying, Diana, we hardly knew ye. With this book, it is now safe to say, Diana, we know more than enough...
...ever about their children's prospects for higher education, "tracking"--or predetermining kids' educational and career paths--has become the latest strategy in the college-admissions game. "Kids need to hear the message that anyone can go to college and need to know how to make that possible," says Diana Phillips, director of the U.S. Department of Education's middle school initiative, Think College Early. "In many households, the idea of talking about college doesn't exist," says Phillips, whose program's goal is to let all kids, regardless of family income or their parents' educational level, know they have...