Bootstrapper

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