Books I've read this Spring

2025 has been proven to be stressful and tiring so far. This results in me watching less tv, going to bed earlier, planning less activities in general but...reading more so it seems.  So here's the books I've been reading this spring. 

 

Rachel Wells - Kat over de drempel

A book with the main character being a cat.   That intrigued me when I saw it in the library. 
It results in an easy to read book where a cat moving into a new street to find a new home results into connecting people that all need their own type of healing and struggle and he becomes the catalyst.  Thanks to Alfie they find comfort, they find friends and support.

A rather predictable book but a lovely feel-good book that reads quite smoothly. 

Ellis Peters - De eenzame bruid

A medieval detective? That seemed like fun to try. 
I had some difficulty however to live myself into a story of courtly love, monks, plague sufferers etc. I couldn't really visualise the story well enough.  The detective monk had some pretty clever thinking that made the book good enough but it wasn't as wow as I had hoped. 

Louise Young - Op zoek naar een nieuw begin 

A book of the aftermath of the first World War...this book starts where all other books end. It shows that the end of the war is not just a huge relief and celebration. When the fighting stops, there is a return of thousands of very traumatized soldiers: some with very physical lasting wounds, others with strong mental issues that haunt them. They return and have to pick up their lives with their families and reintegrate, but those families also have moved on and are no longer the same as before the war.
Some find the communication that is needed and others don't. 

It clearly isn't the happiest book to read although it's not all gloomy. It was hard to relate with all characters. But it was very realistic and real and an original point of view to start writing in 2019 onwards. 

Sharon Gosling - The house under the cliff

Picked up from my feel good easy to read shelf in the library and it didn't disappoint.  A young women picks up her life and starts over in a real tiny (one-street) seaside village under a cliff in Scotland.  She has to integrate in the little community while that community is also faced with tragedy . (and I looked it up and there really happened this type of environmental tragedy in this existing town).  

It's a feel good love story so the happy end is predictable, but I can enjoy such a book now and then. 

Luigi Malerba - De Maskers 

A historic book about the appointment of the "Dutch" pope. I picked it up before the death of the pope and the recent conclave, more because I was interested to learn more about Adrianus who was a university professor in Leuven when appointed pope.

However, the story was hardly about Adrianus. It was all about the intrigues and power struggles launched after the conclave and the 3-month period that Adrianus took to travel to Rome to pick up his papacy.  2 rivalling cardinals fight for power, using their court members to execute murder etc...  Rome was a very strange confusing place at that time so it seems.  I must admit I struggled through the book. 

Dan Brown - The lost symbol

Ha a true Dan Brown as you can expect...full of paranoia and conspiracy theories of secret societies at top of power.  The book didn't disappoint although it felt also very familiar. Exchange Rome for Washington, the Vatican for the Congress etc...

Camilla Läckberg - De Steenhouwer

A Scandinavian detective about the corpse of a young murdered girl found in the sea.  As often in Scandinavean books, the atmosphere feels heavy. There is a stream of characters, all with their own struggles and more and more also with their secrets. The police are no heroes but real people with jealousy, demotivation and despair.  There are the looming flashbacks that build-up the tension. 

While it was a tough long start, I became hooked to find out the plot.