The Princess Diarist

By: Carrie Fisher

Narrated by: Carrie Fisher, Billie Lourd

Length: 5 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

2018 GRAMMY® Award for Best Spoken Word Album

The Princess Diarist is Carrie Fisher's intimate, hilarious and revealing recollection of what happened behind the scenes on one of the most famous film sets of all time, the first Star Wars movie.

PEOPLE magazine Best Book of Fall 2016

New York Times Best-seller

Star Wars VIII: The Last Jedi, featuring Carrie Fisher, is scheduled for release on December 15, 2017. Bright Lights: Starring Carrie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds debuted on HBO in January 2017.

When Carrie Fisher recently discovered the journals she kept during the filming of the first Star Wars movie, she was astonished to see what they had preserved - plaintive love poems, unbridled musings with youthful naiveté, and a vulnerability that she barely recognized. Today, her fame as an author, actress, and pop-culture icon is indisputable, but in 1977, Carrie Fisher was just a teenager with an all-consuming crush on her costar, Harrison Ford.

With these excerpts from her handwritten notebooks, The Princess Diarist is Fisher's intimate and revealing recollection of what happened on one of the most famous film sets of all time - and what developed behind the scenes. Fisher also ponders the joys and insanity of celebrity, and the absurdity of a life spawned by Hollywood royalty, only to be surpassed by her own outer-space royalty. Laugh-out-loud hilarious and endlessly quotable, The Princess Diarist brims with the candor and introspection of a diary while offering shrewd insight into the type of stardom that few will ever experience.

©2016 Carrie Fisher (P)2016 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

People Magazine’s Best Book of Fall 2016

“Fisher offers a thoughtful, sardonic meditation on the price of fame, cost-of-living adjustments included.” (J.D. Biersdorfer, The New York Times Book Review)

“Characteristically frank and unflinching, funny and true...The Princess Diarist is about a woman’s relationship with desire - her own, and of others’ for her - writ large, as large as Star Wars.” (Julianne Escobedo Shepherd, Jezebel.com)

“In her funny and frequently touching new memoir The Princess Diarist, the iconic Star Wars actress and author reveals the diaries she kept as a 19-year-old starring in the blockbuster sci-fi film.... It’s an eye-opener for fans, but it also shows a gifted writer even at a young age. There was a lot going on between Princess Leia’s hair buns.” (Brian Truitt, USA Today)

Come for the headlines, stay for the whole story

So, I am one who didn't get this book because of the pre-release hype of the "illicit" affair.

Spoiler, if you haven't seen or read anything else about this book, yes she talks about the affair with Ford, but no, she doesn't go into any detail if that's what you are after.

No, I was hoping for some hidden untold story from forgotten recollections of the filming of the first Star Wars movie from 1976 that would be revealed by a key actor.
Hmmm, not so much actually.
These are the recollections of Carrie Fisher of her own life and times during the time from just before being selected to play Leia and what her life quickly became after.

I had not ever listened to anything written by Carrie Fisher before this. And, after listening to her writing and her narration of her story, the ONLY one who could really narrate it!, I realized I had been missing her genuine good writing and comedic skills.
I had always known about about her later years battles with family, drugs and alcohol and just didn't think what she'd write would be very good, even though she's had plays and movies made from her writings.
I was wrong in that assumption and I really enjoyed listening to her views and opinions on what she had written about here.

I also thought it was excellent to have her own daughter, Billie Lourd, read the actual excerpts of her diary included in this book towards the end. In doing that, I think, it gave a flashback style and sounding more like it was Fisher herself at the time she was writing her thoughts and observations into her diary.
Very good!

The best

Yes she sort of rambles here but I love her. She was/is/always will be a truly unique person who was as brave and fearless as her onscreen counterpart. There are some great laugh out loud moments but it will just leave you missing her. Worth the listen for shizzle

Boring

What made the experience of listening to The Princess Diarist the most enjoyable?

So disappointing. I was hoping Carrie would talk more about filming Star Wars. Instead it's all about her brief, vapid affair with Harrison Ford. She wanted more, they didn't talk about anything. Repeated over and over again. Dull as a bag of hair. I thought Carrie's performance was very good and very "her". Her daughter Billie Lourde read the diary portion of the book in a monotone that almost put me to sleep. This is the first time I didn't finish an audible book and I regret wasting the money to buy it.

Did Carrie Fisher and Billie Lourd do a good job differentiating all the characters? How?

Carrie did very well. I love her. Billie is terrible, very flat and emotionless.

Any additional comments?

Buy only if you like the same thing over and over

it's exhausting to be princess, to be defined so

mostly about her affair with Harrison Ford but she is lovely broad. she might not approve of the word broad.

Great book

This was a great listen for any Star Wars/Carrie Fisher fan. I loved all the stories and well written poetry in her journals. I also really enjoyed how blunt Carrie was. Honestly, her bluntness was my favorite part. Thanks for taking the time to read and write this book Carrie Fisher! Love always

Sardonic, Mocking Humor

Carrie Fisher's style is sardonic... humor that few would really appreciate. The book is mainly 5 parts:
* Fisher's life before Star Wars (acting in the film "Shampoo" and attending London's Central School of Speech and Drama)
* Star Wars
* Affair with Harrison Ford
* Reading of poetry/stream of consciousness from Fisher's diary (another retelling of the affair)
* Unexpected Fame from Star Wars (with some ramblings of her encounters with weird fans)

For fans of Star Wars, there are tidbits of interesting facts (like Harrison and Carrie not needing to act when kissing in "The Empire Strikes Back"). While I understand why Fisher would want to narrate her own book, it's distracting to hear her gravelly voice talking about a time when she was 20-years old. It's hard to picture the young Princess Leia when listening to a 60-year old Fisher.

Likes and dislikes

Likes - history of Star Wars, her narration and experience of living Leia.

Dislikes- recaps of experiences with fans drag on and are annoying, journal diaries drag on as well although are good writing.

Worth buying for any Star Wars fan and fan of her work although less pleasing than previous works.

love it

loved to hear her voice agen. rip princess my the force be with you .

Carrie Fisher is delightful.

wish the story could've continued! Her daughter's delivery was somewhat melancholy and depressing. great book!

This is great!

Carrie Fisher found the old diary she kept while filming Star Wars and decided to write this book. Alot of this book goes through Carrie's 3-month affair with Harrison Ford. You get the aspect of 19-year-old Carrie's thoughts and also adult Carrie's look back with insight. She is so funny as she looks back! Young Carrie wrote alot of poems. Carrie narrates this audiobook along with her daughter Billie Lourd reading the journal entries.