By Leslie Lindsay  ELEVEN HOURS is one of the most realistic and harrowing stories about labor and delivery I think you’re likely to encounter. But don’t read this book if you’re pregnant, it’s that realistic, and it’s that visceral, darkly somber, and candid. Lore Tannenbaum arrives at the hospital alone, in labor, and with very specific instructions, ones she isn’t willing to budge on; the all elusive birth plan. Her nurse, Franckline, a Haitian refugee and also pregnant and on the cusp of showing (though her husband doesn’t yet know this), is compassionate, patient, and caring–it’s what we all want in a nurse. Together, these women go through the trials and tribulations of child birth, the unsaid stories, the ones that are, as they come to terms with desire, fear, crushing losses (physical and figuratively), and the tiny, imperceptible pieces of joy they find in the crevices of each contraction, each pain of birthing a new human. Today, I welcome Pamela Erens, author of THE VIRGINS, which was named a Best Book of 2013 by …