Labor Day: True Birth Stories by Today's Best Women Writers

It's an elemental, almost animalistic urge-the expectant mother's hunger for birth narratives. Bookstores are filled with month-by-month pregnancy manuals, but the shelves are virtually empty of artful, entertaining, unvarnished accounts of labor and delivery-the stories that new mothers need most. Here is a book that transcends the limits of how-to guides and honors the act of childbirth in the twenty-first century. Eleanor Henderson and Anna Solomon have gathered true birth stories by women who have made self-expression their business, including Cheryl Strayed, Julia Glass, Lauren Groff, Dani Shapiro, and many other luminaries. In Labor Day, you'll hear about women determined to give birth naturally and others begging for epidurals; women who pushed for hours and women whose labors were over practically before they'd started; women giving birth to twins and to ten-pound babies. These women give birth in the hospital, at home, in bathtubs, and, yes, even in the car. Some revel in labor, some fear labor, some feel defeated by labor, some are fulfilled by it-and all are amazed by it. You will laugh, weep, squirm, perhaps groan in recognition, and undoubtedly gasp with surprise. And then you'll call every mother or mother-to-be that you know and say "You must read Labor Day."

Eleanor Henderson is the award-winning author of Ten Thousand Saints, which was named one of the Top 10 Books of 2011 by the New York Times and was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. She lives in Ithaca, New York, with her husband and sons.Anna Solomon is the award-winning author of the critically acclaimed novel The Little Bride. Anna's fiction has appeared in One Story, the Georgia Review, the Harvard Review, the Missouri Review, Shenandoah, and elsewhere. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
An award-winning storyteller and a graduate of Johns Hopkins University, Cris Dukehart has narrated books in a plethora of genres, from romance, science fiction, and young adult to children's literature and autobiography. Her voice, with an endearing mix of sweetness and pluck, can be heard around the world and across the Web in commercials, e-learning projects, and corporate narrations.
A multiple Audie Award finalist, an AudioFile Earphones Award winner, and one of AudioFile's Best Voices of 2010 and 2011, Hillary Huber has recorded close to two hundred titles. AudioFile magazine says, "Hillary Huber's narration is lyrical enough to be set to music."