Tunno women have things to prove — to themselves and to anyone who doubts their dreams or drive.

Fran Tunno discovered her mother was different from her classmates’ moms as soon as she hit first grade. Thankfully, the self-consciousness she once felt growing up in an Italian immigrant family has turned to reflective gold. She writes with understated humor of growing up as the child of hunter-gatherers in the swinging 60s. The love she feels for the mother she was once embarrassed by shines through every story.