In Her Own Sweet Time: Unexpected Adventures in Finding Love, Commitment, and Motherhood

Author Rachel Lehmann-Haupt explores the options of single motherhood through the insights and interviews of In Her Own Sweet Time: Unexpected Adventures in Finding Love, Commitment, and Motherhood.

Book designers everywhere, I beg you: when the tome in question involves a major city, a woman, and relationships, can you come up with something besides a shoe to signify this combination?

Ignore the heel on the cover of this one, a tender memoir by Lehmann-Haupt, a single woman approaching 35 who’s investigating alternate paths to motherhood. She interviews members of the organization Single Mothers by Choice, she talks to doctors about egg freezing, embryo freezing, and donor sperm. At times, the book feels more like a personal pros-and-cons list than an objective exploration into motherhood, but it also has warmth and insight. And the payoff here isn’t the suspense over Lehmann-Haupt’s happily-ever-after. It’s knowing that if you’ve ever thought about the when and how of parenthood, you’re in good company.