Almost Her: The strange dilemma of being nearly famous

by Caroline Paul

What if you weren’t famous, but people treated you as if you were? That was the life of Caroline Paul, who looked just like a celebrity – her own identical twin. With humor and insight, Paul explores the strange world of fame from the wry perspective of an ordinary person.

Caroline Paul's most recent book is Lost Cat, A True Story of Love, Desperation, and GPS Technology. She is also the author of the historical novel East Wind, Rain, and the memoir, Fighting Fire, about her career as a San Francisco firefighter. Her forthcoming book The Gutsy Girl, Takes for your life of Ridiculous Adventure will be published March 1, 2016. She is a member of the San Francisco Writers' Grotto.

This is a short e-book published by Shebooks--high quality fiction, memoir, and journalism for women, by women. For more information, visit

Genres: Nonfiction, Memoir, Essays

42 pages, Kindle Edition

First published July 9, 2015

About the author

Caroline Paul is an American writer of fiction and nonfiction. Trained as a journalist and documentary filmmaker at Stanford University, she instead pursued a career as a firefighter, as one of the first women hired by the San Francisco Fire department. She worked most of her career on Rescue 2, where she and her crew were responsible for search and rescue in fires. Rescue 2 members were also trained and sent on scuba dive searches, rope and rapelling rescues, surf rescues, confined space rescues, all hazardous material calls, and the most severe train and car wrecks.

Source: Wikipedia.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

i love Caroline Paul's writing, she's a firefighter, a San Franciscan, twin sister of a famous actress ("no not the one w/the boobs, the one w/the brains") she even wrote a cat book worth reading. In the cat book she makes herself sound weirder than the ratchaser, you can't get much better.

This essay, unfortunately just a Kindle book (i'd love to have an autographed copy), is about being a famous twin, or a twin of someone famous. Accepting the move from economy to first class because the flight attendant won't believe she doesn't star on Baywatch and realizing she can't drink the wine that's offered because the next next day's headline could be about the non-drinking actress drinking on the plane and Caroline can't gorge herself on the free first class cookies because her sister would be asked about it. She tells why she signed her Sister's name once.

She also talks about the nature of twinship ie. fraternal v. paternal, Caroline is gay and her Sister is straight and the psychic bond that does/doesn't exist.

[M. Van · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a short and personal account of the experiences of being a celebrity’s identical twin. It raises some interesting points even if you’re not a twin and lifts some of the veil of those who are. A quick and fun read.

[Katrina Lawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The equipoise of being a twin. Caroline’s and Alexandra’s equanimity seems to be diametrically opposed in just the right balance. This story really made me consider how I view others, especially twins, triplets, celebrities, etc.

[Emi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting, new topic I hadn’t thought about- celebrity twins mistaken identity.

[Anuja Kelkar · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a one of the twins myself, I wanted to say, "So true" after reading every sentence in the book. It was almost as if the book was reading me, instead of the other way around. I relate to it not in the way of being twin of a celebrity, because that doesn't apply in my case, but Caroline Paul, the SF firefighter and writer sister of the famous Alexandra Paul, the Baywatch star, puts up so many interesting points and discussions from her anecdotes throughout the book! One of the interesting stories she shares in this book makes you think, "Maybe all of us are just truly enslaved by our genes."

[Rhonda Lomazow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost her.

A wonderful honest look in seeing celebrity and it's perks from a unique perspective .Caroline Paul's the identical twin of Alexandra Paul of Baywatch fame.She was often mistaken for her sister she was ushered into first class asked for autographs and has a unique birds eye view of being a celebrity.

[Olivia Case · Rating 5 out of 5]

I surprisingly loved this book. It's got great, but quick, insight to celebrity life from an outsiders perspective and interesting information about twins.
I was expecting a quick read to go with my morning coffee but I ended up really enjoying this book.
The facts shared about twin life was most interesting to me.

[Starla King · Rating 4 out of 5]

Entertaining, quick, and interesting read about the experiences of being a celebrity's identical twin. Although the writing itself wasn't fantastic, it didn't get in the way, so I consider that a plus.

[Rebecca W · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting perspective; quick read.