Sons often seem to reckon with their fathers—in life and in art. It is rarer to read a grown man’s memoir about his mother, especially one full of gratitude and admiration. That’s why TERRY MCDONELL’s book is special—a son remembering the plucky, hardworking single mom who helped see him through a tough childhood and adolescence as a bright, cocky, mid-century American male growing up in California. He didn’t give his mother’s life much thought back then, he says, but came to realize how much her resilience, love, and quiet feminism shaped him and helped him become the person he is—a proud father of two and one of the country’s legendary magazine editors. In conversation with author ANNE TAYLOR FLEMING, McDonell will talk about the memoir, about mothers and sons, and raising two boys of his own.