📖 reading log: bootstrapper by mardi jo link

Book Info

Genre: Nonfiction, Memoir

LibraryThing: https://www.librarything.com/work/13493339/t/Bootstrapper-From-Broke-to-Badass-on-a-Northern-Michigan-Farm

Acquired from: Digger’s, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA

Started reading: August 18, 2025

Finished reading: TBD

Reading Updates

Page 0: The Forest Unseen is too brainy to read straight thru, so I’m alternating it with this memoir which is about a newly divorced single mom on a farm in Northern Michigan.

Can’t find a bookmark so I’m using a Goodwill receipt from Chicago.

Page 10 (maybe): Wow 19 years married and now divorced, that’s sad.

Page 54: The Moosewood Cookbook mentioned! I have a (digital) copy, but I’m bad at actually reading it. They do have a lot of great vegetarian/vegan recipes though; I should check to see if they have a suggestion for cucumbers…

Page 77:

Until he topped 140 pounds or so, Rocky’s MO was to tunnel under the fence, roll sideways like a greased watermelon, air-paddle his girth up out of the dirt until he was free of the wire, and then it was full speed ahead toward the deep cover dreamed of by fugitives everywhere: the forest. Pigs are the Indy race cars of the livestock world and can work up some serious speed if allowed to bust into the open.

lol

Page 88: Kinda wish she said already why they’re divorcing, especially since she doesn’t want her kids to spend any time with their father but hasn’t said why except that being without them will break her— but they’re going across the street to their other parent? Also I wish people went to therapy more tbh

Page 106: I’m still thinking about the half-off bread store. Half price for them is $0.80 which means a regular price loaf is $1.60. $1.60 in 2005 money is the equivalent of $2.65 today— and that’s for bakery bread, not cheap white loaf from the grocery store. I looked up a local bakery here in Ann Arbor and 1lb loaf costs $8. Makes me want to cry…

Page 138: She’s been sick for over a week with swine flu and they ran out of food, and nobody thinks to ask the dad for help? Not even the kids?

Page 175: Her potential love interest having his divorce hearing the exact same day as her divorce hearing is the stuff of romcoms!

Word List

  • Thundersnow

See also: Books Read (2025) / All Reading Logs

Author: tozka

Late 30's former librarian traveling the world as a catsitter. More about me here!

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