Do You Think About Me on My Birthday? Book Talk

About the Book
Set in the 1980s, Do You Think About Me on My Birthday? is a coming-of-age memoir that begins during the emotional upheaval of a family divorce. In the midst of that turmoil, a teenage girl—adopted at birth—learns she’s being stalked by her biological father. She was relinquished, not abandoned, by a birth mother who feared exactly what would come to pass.

Despite its serious undercurrents, this is a fun, fast-moving journey through adolescence—complete with first love, awkward moments, and the cultural quirks of the decade. It’s a time-travel ride through summer days at the beach, great music, and roller skates; all while navigating the deeper questions of identity, adoption, and the meaning of family.

About the Author
Raised in the North Hills of Pittsburgh, Jill Cohen began her journalism career in the 1980s after graduating from Ohio University’s Scripps School of Journalism in 1987. She started writing for a news magazine at the Jersey Shore before moving to New York City, where she worked as a tv writer.

From 1990 to 1999, Jill lived in Switzerland, raising her family abroad before returning to Pittsburgh. For the next 18 years, she wrote for several local and national publications, including the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette and North Hills Monthly Magazine.

Her first book, Like It Was Yesterday: A Journalist’s File Since 9/11, chronicles her brother’s survival of the September 11 attacks in NYC and her reflections as a reporter during that time. In her latest memoir, Do You Think About Me on My Birthday?, Jill shares her personal journey as an adoptee who was stalked by her biological father—a story decades in the making.

Now based in South Florida, Jill produces a news and variety podcast called The Beach Report, available on YouTube and Facebook.