Lynn Toler was, if anything, an achiever. At thirty-three, after Harvard, Penn Law School, and a decade as a successful lawyer, she was elected to a municipal judgeship-a black woman in a mostly white community, in a district where the opposing party held a 5:1 majority. Once on the bench, responsible for adjudicating the countless minor squabbles and foibles to be found among her town's residents, she realized that the teachings of one person in particular helped her when dealing with those offenders. That person was her mother, a woman who possessed remarkable grace, strength, and simple insight.

Toni Toler's "rules" for life were forged in growing up the daughter of a poor teen mother, and through a long marriage to a husband who suffered mental illness and alcoholism. The story of how she transcended these circumstances, and raised Lynn and her equally successful sister, provide the grounding for Lynn's story of her life, her family, and her career. The worldview that shaped these rules is based on learning how to conquer anger and become immune to insult. Lynn shows how the mindset of "a black woman who knew how to make things work" taught her the power of knowing how to manage one's emotional business—lessons that this book offers in wrenching stories written in spare and graceful prose. My Mother's Rules is an unforgettable memoir that will captivate readers with its illustrations of how to rise above the most difficult circumstances and find peace and success in life.