All You Have to Do Is Call
Circulating Ideas 249
In the latest episode of the Circulating Ideas podcast, I had the pleasure of interviewing author Kerri Maher about her new book All You Have to Do is Call, which takes inspiration from the real-life Jane Collective, a radical feminist group in Chicago dedicated to providing safe reproductive healthcare, including abortions. Kerri candidly shares her thoughts and explains how the landmark Dobbs ruling influenced certain aspects of her book. We also discuss her personal connection with libraries, highlighting their role in fostering her love for books, her writing process, researching historic events for her books, and how she develops her characters.
Be sure to grab a copy of All You Have To Do Is Call from your local bookstore or place a hold at your public library, and stay tuned for Kerri's upcoming book, Summer of Love, which promises to be another enthralling journey through time and culture. Happy reading!
CI249 Show Notes
All You Have to Do Is Call
Chicago, early 1970s: Who does a woman call when she needs help? Jane.
The best-known secret in the city, Jane is an underground women’s health organization composed entirely of women helping women, empowering them to live lives free from the expectations of society by offering reproductive counseling and safe, illegal abortions. Veronica, Jane’s founder, prides herself on the services she has provided to thousands of women, yet the price of others’ freedom is that she leads a double life. When she’s not at Jane, Veronica plays the role of a conventional housewife—which becomes even more difficult during her own high-risk pregnancy.
Two more women in Veronica’s neighborhood are grappling with similar disconnects. Margaret, a young professor at the University of Chicago, secretly volunteers at Jane as she falls in love with a man whose attitude toward his ex-wife increasingly disturbs her. Patty, who’s long been content as a devoted wife and mother, has begun to sense that something essential is missing from her life. When her runaway younger sister Eliza shows up unexpectedly, Patty is forced to come to terms with what it really means to love and support a sister.
In this historic moment when the personal was nothing if not political, when television, movies, and commercials told women they’d “come a long way, baby,” Veronica, Margaret, and Patty must make choices that will change the course of their lives forever.
Kerri Maher
KERRI MAHER is the USA Today bestselling author of The Paris Bookseller, The Girl in White Gloves, The Kennedy Debutante, and, under the name Kerri Majors, This Is Not a Writing Manual: Notes for the Young Writer in the Real World. She holds an MFA from Columbia University and lives with her daughter and dog in a leafy suburb west of Boston, Massachusetts.
Mentions
Steve Thomas is a public library manager who lives in the suburbs of Atlanta with his wife, two kids, and one dog. He has worked in libraries for two decades and has hosted the Circulating Ideas podcast since 2011.
Currently Reading: The Last Devil to Die by Richard Osman
Thank you so much!!