More than just one woman's search for information about the biological mother she believed had died in childbirth, this book explores the mind and feelings of an adopted child. Call Me Ella is a heartwarming and uplifting story about a young girl who considered her adoptive parents her "real parents," yet needed to know more. She needed to know her roots. Her heritage. With a burning desire to have someone who "looked like her," she couldn't wait to marry and have children of her own. She had no idea that her twenty-four year search, which did not begin until after both of her parents had passed away, would involve Sopranos-like tales of organized crime, gambling, and infidelity. Kaufman grew up thinking she killed her mother. As a child, when her adoptive mom answered her question, "Where did I come from?" by saying her birth mother died in childbirth, she believed in her heart she killed the woman who gave her life. She kept asking her mom the same question, hoping to get a different answer. Maybe she'd learn her birth mother had been ill, that it wasn't her fault she died. When Kaufman finally got old enough to figure out it took two people, a man and a woman, to have a child, she asked a new question: "What happened to my birth father? Did he die too?" That's when her mom shot her foot through the kitchen wall screaming, "Don't ever ask me that again." It took her years to realize why that question hit a nerve. In New Jersey, when a baby is adopted, their original birth certificate is sealed, making it seem as if the child did not exist before the adoption. Kaufman never even knew her birth mother's last name until she discovered her adoption papers a week before her mom passed away. Unfortunately, when her mom died with her secrets intact, she thought she'd never learn about her ethnic background or medical history. She wasn't ready to give up. She needed to know more. She needed to know the big secret that kept her mom from answering her questions. With determination and the unexpected help from a self-proclaimed "romantic" stranger, she set out to find her roots. Call Me Ella is a memoir of love, family, loss and perseverance. It shows how we can work to achieve our happy endings.

Jessie Newman was a smart, sexy, successful Weight Watchers leader who had it all, until she caught her cheating husband, in the act. After tossing him to the curb, she had to quit the part-time career she loved and wound up stuck in a dead-end job, watching her butt grow. Now, happily married to Tad, a prominent and handsome neurosurgeon, Jessie is ready for a change. When Tad gets offered a job in our nation's capital, this former weight-loss guru considers this the opportunity she's been waiting for to quit her job, drop the twenty pounds she's packed on, and embark on a new career. In Who Moved My Cookies?, Jessie looks forward to letting go of her former life and embarking on a journey of self-improvement. First up is finding a new career. Next, figuring out the perfect diet, even if it means giving up meat and cookies. Above all, Jessie is determined to make this marriage work in spite of the many hours her husband is now spending with his sexy new assistant. Can she do it?