Bootstrapper: From Broke to Badass on a Northern Michigan Farm - Softcover

Winner of The Michigan Notable Book Award * The Housatonic Book Award
The GREAT LAKES, GREAT READS Booksellers' Choice Award

"Glints with Link's raw, willful energy. . . . Possesses that rare, elusive, but much sought-after feeling of authenticity."
--The New York Times Book Review

"A heroic-comic saga of single motherhood, pure stubbornness, and the loyalty of three young sons. And more than that, an honest account of the working poor, the people who . . . don't need your sympathy. Just a break now and then."
--Garrison Keillor

"A country song of a memoir, complete with a broken-down truck named Cookie. It's great fun to listen to . . . full blast."
--San Francisco Chronicle

"You'll fall in love with Mardi Jo Link's family in this irreverent and heartwarming memoir."
--Parade

"Inspirational and funny in the I-might-as-well-laugh-or-I-think-I'll-cry sort of way."
--Detroit Free Press

"Dynamic. . . . Throws a wrench, or in this case a pitchfork, into the saga of the newly single mother. . . . Link's snappy writing turns this potentially familiar story into a new kind of survivalist country song."
--Minneapolis Star-Tribune

"Hilarious, wrenching, and heartwarming . . . Chronicles one woman's determination to discover meaning and wholeness in the midst of brokenness."
-BookPage

"A tale of grit and determination. . . . In reading Bootstrapper other single parents might feel solidarity in the shared experience of struggle--may even derive strength."
--New York Journal of Books

"Link's style of writing is like her style of living--direct, funny, void of self-pity and exceedingly humane. . . . This is a book about a mother's fierce love and the sustaining fabric of family; yet, just beneath is a powerful subtext about the value of work."
--Kirkus Reviews

"Tough, honest . . . Will appeal to the bootstrapper in all of us."
--Booklist

"As much triumph as tragedy. . . . Both humorous and heartwarming."
--Traverse City (Michigan) Record-Eagle

"Poignant, funny. . . . Filled with the kind of joy only a tough-minded mother could bring to her kids."
--Northern Express