S12:Ep253 - The Lost Year with Guest Katherine Marsh + Cat Book Recs - 3/12/25

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You can find Katherine Marsh at her website www.katherinemarsh.com or on IG at @katherinemarshauthor.

 

This week we chat with Katherine Marsh, author of The Lost Year, a finalist for the 2023 National Book Award for Young People’s Literature. I recently discovered this book after one of our book club members selected another Katherine Marsh book, Nowhere Boy, for our August read. The Lost Year is middle-grade historical fiction and it is super timely because part of it is set in Ukraine in the 1930s. The story introduced me to a topic in Ukraine history I knew nothing about called the Holodomor. Katherine tells us all about her novel which was inspired by her relationship with her grandmother who was from Ukraine. It is a perfect book selection if you are curious about Ukrainian history that influences current events; reading this book would also allow you to check off having read something for Middle Grade March. 

 

For our book recommendations in this episode, we’re talking about books in which cats are a central part of the story. We have some nonfiction selections, as well as literary fiction and graphic novels that will definitely appeal to your inner cat. If you don’t love cats, you can check out these books anyway for their compelling stories OR you can wait around for Amy to muscle Carrie into a future dog episode. 

 

Books Mentioned in this Episode:

 

1- The Lost Year by Katherine Marsh   2- Nowhere Boy by Katherine Marsh   3- Medusa (The Myth of Monsters #1) by Katherine Marsh   4- The God's Revenge (The Myth of Monsters #2) by Katherine Marsh   5- The Fountain Overflows by Rebecca West   6- Leslie F***ing Jones by Leslie Jones   7- Bog Myrtle by Sid Sharp   8- The Wolf Suit by Sid Sharp   9- A 5 star Read recommended by fellow book lover Elaine Hoystead @bookmadlibrarian - Hall of Smoke by Hannah M. Long   10- Pineville Trace by Wes Blake   11- Cat's People by Tanya Guerrero   12- The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuka Natsukawa   13- Cat Tale: The Wild, Weird Battle to Save the Florida Panther by Craig Pittman   14- The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean  

15- The Cat’s Meow: How Cats Evolved from the Savanna to Your Sofa by Jonathan B. Losos

 

16- Katie the Catsitter by Colleen AF Venable, illustrated by Stephanie Yue

 

17- The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza by Mac Barnett, illustrated by Shawn Harris

 

Media mentioned--   1- Kaos (Netflix, 2024)   2- Are Cats Actually Liquid -  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-cats-actually-liquid/   3- Jeff Bezos and the Washington Post https://apnews.com/article/washington-post-bezos-opinion-trump-market-liberty-97a7d8113d670ec6e643525fdf9f06de   Reply