Description: 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."
Brief description: 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. Her stories have twice been awarded the Pushcart Prize, have won the Missouri Review Editor's Prize, and have been nominated for a National Magazine Award. The holder of a BA from Brown University and an MFA from the Iowa Writers Workshop, Anna has taught writing at the Sackett Street Writers Workshop and Manhattanville College. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island, with her husband and daughter.
Review Quotes:
"One of the most important preparations for labor is reading actual stories from actual women in labor. Labor Day provides a tremendously varied, honest, and beautiful set of stories to learn from and grow with, no matter where you are in your parenting journey."
-- "Mayim Bialik, PhD, actress, neuroscientist"