Double Time: How I Survived---and Mostly Thrived---Through the First Three Years of Mothering Twins [Hardcover]

Jane Roper (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 8, 2012

Becoming a mother is rarely what you expect.

Jane Roper never expected she’d have twins—or that they’d be such a spirited twosome. She didn’t expect that finding the right balance of work and home would be so tricky. And she certainly didn’t expect she’d grapple with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder during her daughters’ toddler years. But she also didn’t anticipate just how much joy, laughter and self-discovery motherhood would bring.

 

Full of warmth, honesty, occasional advice, and a generous helping of humor, Double Time is a smart and engaging account of the first three years with multiples and a refreshingly candid and vulnerable look at clinical depression. It’s a memoir that will resonate countless women—especially those parenting in double time.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for Double Time:

 

“Raising twins is maddening and masochistic yet worth every crazy moment. Jane Roper captures them all in her revealing, heart wrenching, hilarious memoir. As a mother of twins myself, I cackled and related on every page as Jane revealed the unvarnished truth about dealing with twins, depression and trying to ‘have it all.’” --Stefanie Wilder-Taylor, author of Sippy Cups Are Not for Chardonnay: And Other Things I Had to Learn as a New Mom

 

"At once immeasurably funny and deeply comforting; if you are expecting or have young twins, this is a must-read." -Elizabeth Lyons, author of You Cannot Be Serious: and 32 Other Rules that Sustain a (Mostly) Balanced Mom and Ready or Not Here We Come!: The Real Experts' Guide to the First Year With Twins

"With candor to spare, Jane Roper shares her twin-parenting tale with commitment, compassion and a generous dose of comedy. Whether you are expecting twins, parenting twins, dealing with depression, or simply want a great read from a great writer, read Double Time!" -- Cheryl Lage, author of Twinspiration-Real Life Advice from Pregnancy through the First Year

"It’s like sharing a bottle of wine with a friend." -- San Francisco Chronicle

“With humor and frankness, the author opens a private door into her life as a new mother of fraternal girls . . . A straightforward, honest look at how raising a child is difficult, but raising twins can be exponentially more demanding.” --Kirkus

“Her honest and funny take on an often frantic life with twins make the slog of raising babies amusing and memorable. Roper ultimately succeeds in making the story of a new mom feel fresh and engaging.” –Publisher’s Weekly

About the Author

JANE ROPER writes the popular Baby Squared blog on Babble.com and is the author of Eden Lake, a novel. Her writing has appeared in Poets & Writers, Salon, Slate, and The Rumpus, among other publications, and she holds an MFA from the Iowa Writer's Workshop. Jane lives in the Boston area with her husband, singer-songwriter Alastair Moock, and their twin daughters. Visit Jane at www.janeroper.com.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 272 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (May 8, 2012)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312552238
• ISBN-13: 978-0312552237
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.8 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #545,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #48 in Books > Parenting & Relationships > Family Relationships > Twins & Multiples

More About the Author

Jane Roper is the author of a memoir DOUBLE TIME, and a novel, EDEN LAKE. She received her MFA in fiction from the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and her writing has appeared on Salon, The Rumpus, Poets & Writers and elsewhere. She lives in the Boston area with her husband and twin daughters. Her website is www.janeroper.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Book About Motherhood That Truly Celebrates It May 14, 2012

By Stephanie D Ross

Format:Hardcover

I've been a Jane Roper fan since my own twins were about 1. Her blog, Baby Squared, has reminded me that it's all going to be okay and that I can do this. I loved her fiction debut last summer, Eden Lake, and was eager for this one.

I found myself nodding in agreement from the first page. She does a great job of describing infertility and the eventual news that she was pregnant with twins. What I really liked was the way she did not make it seem like the best or worst experience ever. There were tough times and fantastic times, but it was real.

I laughed too which is nice when you're recalling the first years as a twin parent. She actually made me wistful for my tiny babies and the fear I felt when tasked with taking care of two tiny humans.

It's also a great celebration of the modern woman as well. Even if you don't have twins, you will benefit from reading about Jane's journey through motherhood and career. She faces the decisions and fears most modern mothers face.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Long-time blog reader May 29, 2012

By hippygoth

Format:Hardcover

I was worried that maybe there wouldn't be enough "new" in the book to keep me (and other long-time blog readers) interested. I was very relieved to find out, that at least for me, that wasn't the case.

Reading this book as a narrative with a chronological story is completely different than reading it in chunks every couple of days. The distance of perspective, and being able to look back and impose a structure and a pattern on the events of Elsa's & Clio's baby- and toddlerhood gave the whole story a path and trajectory. It's the difference between when you are remembering something from a distance, rather than the immediacy telling someone a story from that morning over an evening phone call.

The reason I've been such an avid reader (and commenter) on the Baby Squared blog is that I totally respect Jane's honesty, and that is something that the book gets just right as well. Whether she's talking about how hard parenting is, the weirdness of raising twins in a culture that has a lot of strange (and conflicting) expectations, or the truth of trying to parent and live with a major depressive episode, I found myself nodding, cringing, sighing, and smiling along. It was also nice to get to meet "Mr. Baby Squared" a little bit more. So many "parenting" books gloss over marriage stuff - seeing a wife and husband as a couple, a team, and relationship was wonderful.

(Excerpted from my GoodReads review)

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Wish I had this book BEFORE I had the twins! May 16, 2012

By Heather E.

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

I've been a follower of Jane Roper's blog on Babble since my twins were born. Since her girls are about two years older, I think of her as a pioneer and trailblazer filling me on on what is coming my way. I loved Double Time because her twin experience was so similar to ours in so many ways. We found wubbanubs to be our life savers, we kept crazy charts about everything going in and out of our girls and we had many of the same highs and lows as Jane and Alastair. I am planning to give this book to anyone I know who is going to have twins because it tells it how it really is and answers so many of the questions that I had when my twins were on the way (how do you go somewhere by yourself with two babies, how do you feed them both at once, etc.). Reading about her journey helped me remember how great this experience has been and get excited (and slightly terrified) about what is coming next!