First, there was Amy’s highly-praised CD . . . "Thanks to this CD [Amy's Answering Machine], full-grown and perfectly independent adults whose mothers worry about them as if they were still children can find comfort in the fact that they are not alone."
- The New York Times
 
"Laugh your head off...hilarious!"
- Cosmopolitan
 
Then, in her first book which immediately became a Denver Post bestseller and reached the #1 position on Amazon in May 2002, Amy Borkowsky shares more than a decade’s worth of maddening actual phone messages from her hilariously overprotective mother. The book features messages from the CD plus several available for the first time. Amy also reveals the stories behind the calls and provides humorous rebuttals to the messages that helped her go from being an overprotected daughter and award-winning ad exec to being an overprotected daughter with a standup act, hit CD and now the very entertaining hardcover original, AMY’S ANSWERING MACHINE: MESSAGES FROM MOM from Atria Books/Simon & Schuster. (Publication: April 4, 2001, $14.95, ISBN: 0-7434-42228-7)
 
AMY'S ANSWERING MACHINE includes such gems as:
 
(Beep.) “Amila? . . . I wanted to know if you by any chance happened to catch the story on the new squirting scam. Apparently, the way it works is, you’ll be walking along the street and, unbeknownst to you, some guy or maybe a woman will squirt you from behind with a bottle of ketchup. Then, someone else who’s in cahoots with that person will say, “Excuse me, miss, but there’s some ketchup on your sweater.” And then just as you go to wipe it, they grab your bag and that’s the end of that. I just figured I’d mention it, so if somebody tries to point out any ketchup on you, you’ll be wise to it, and you can just say something like, “ I’m well aware of the ketchup -- in fact, it matches my pants that have a big blob of relish.”
 
The book is complete with clever, original cartoons and Amy’s refreshingly honest sidebars covering such topics as "Mom Years" (how mothers perceive time, so that even your first day of kindergarten seems like it was yesterday) and "Call Prying," Amy’s name for call waiting, since mothers use the beep as an excuse to pry for information on who else is calling Their Child. (Amy writes, "I just don’t think it’s necessary to give my mother every detail on all the guys who call me. Especially when most of them are selling magazines and time-shares.")

Like just about everyone else, Amy is frustrated by her mother’s constant advice and worrying, yet she’s torn because she does realize how unique a mother’s love is:
"The most devoted friend, lover, or even husband would never call you in a panic to warn you of the dangers of nylon-crotched panties and wouldn’t dream of advising you to alternate which side you wear your purse on so your shoulders don’t get uneven."

Finally, Amy offers suggestions on how to deal with a mother who calls too much -- suggestions which she freely admits were of zero help to her. Apparently, mothers’ infuriating overconcern is in their blood and will never go away -- which is why anyone who has ever had a mother or is one will relate to Amy’s Answering Machine: Messages from Mom.