All About Books discussion

I keep a note of all the books that have made me cry:

Loyalty in Death by J.D. Robb
A Long Long WayA Long Long Way by Sebastian Barry
An Imperfect Lens: A Novel by Anne Roiphe
Marley and Me: Life and Love With the World's Worst Dog by John Grogan
Katherine by Anya Seton
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
Passion: A Novel of the Romantic Poets by Jude Morgan
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling
The Indian Clerk by David Leavitt
A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini
Lady Macbeth by Susan Fraser King
The Commoner by John Burnham Schwartz
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
What was Lost by Catherine O'Flynn
Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer
The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein
Lover Avenged by J.R. Ward
Small Wars by Sadie Jones
Major Pettigrew's Last Stand by Helen Simonson
The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner by Stephenie Meyer
Battle Cry by Leon Uris
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
How to Be an American Housewife by Margaret Dilloway
Reaper by Rachel Vincent
The School of Night by Louis Bayard
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë
Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir
Podkayne of Mars by Robert A. Heinlein
On the Beach by Nevil Shute
The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman
The Light Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman
The Dogs of Christmas by W. Bruce Cameron
The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion
Odd Thomas by Dean Koontz
Jim Henson: The Biography by Brian Jay Jones
The Honor of the Queen by David Weber
Survivor In Death by J.D. Robb
Suspect by Robert Crais

Great thread topic! Let's see... Books that have made me shed full-blown tears were:
The Green Mile by Stephen King (SO MUCH CRYING)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
Room by Emma Donoghue
And a childhood series, The Whalesong Trilogy by Robert Siegel

There have been lots of other books where I might not have outright cried, but they affected me very strongly. Sometimes, when a book moves me deeply, I don't actually cry, I just have to sit in stunned silence. Some of those include:
Brief Interviews with Hideous Men by David Foster Wallace (this book was brutal in the best way)
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle
Everything Is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer (I hear his other book, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a tearjerker. I plan to read that soon.)

I'm sure there are others but they're not coming to me at the moment!

Not that many and I don't think I've ever had a 'full-on' crying experience from a book, but Great Expectations, Oliver Twist, The Boy In The Striped Pyjamas and The Pianist all brought tears to my eyes; Great Expectations in particular I remember.

Some of the books that made me cry :

We Are Called to Rise
The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry
The Kite Runner
A Thousand Splendid Suns
The Almond Tree
Neverhome
The Book Thief
The Snow Child
Code Name Verity
Rose Under Fire
All the Light We Cannot See
What She Left Behind

I'm sure there are many others but these are the ones I can think of that I have read in the last couple of years.

There are actually a number over the years, but I'm recalling three books that made me cry in the past year: Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller, Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card, and Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro.

The Never Let Me Go one I could tell was going to hit me; so I read the conclusion discreetly in private at home. With the other two, I was not at all prepared. The Ender's Game one (embarrassing) happened in my car before work, and the Death of a Salesman one (even more embarrassing) happened waiting for a physical at a doctor's office.

I don't generally cry easily, but in really good books, it's the small, understated details that can sometimes get to me. With Ender's Game, it was (view spoiler)[the final exchange between Ender and the alien queen where she explains - it totally floored me. (hide spoiler)].

Oh and I forgot, one more this year.. Burial Rites by Hannah Kent. That one definitely involved some crying too.

Most recently it was 'The Fault in Our Stars'

My eyes can water up, but that is about it. Kirsten, it is a good shelf, because it means the book really did move you! I like books that do this, that make you laugh and cry!

Probably the first time I cried on a book was with Nemecsek's death in The Paul Street Boys

The very first book that made me cry was Little Women (view spoiler)[ I think I was in my early teens when I read this book and when Beth died I was devastated. Even though, looking back and having read it a couple times since, it blindsided me. (hide spoiler)]

My Sister's Keeper - Oh my goodness. Talk about being blindsided by an ending.... I know now to always have tissues with me when I read her.

Izzy & Lenore: Two Dogs, an Unexpected Journey, and Me - I love love love dogs, and who wouldn't' love the little cutie on the cover of this book? (view spoiler)[ I started reading it and was absolutely hooked by the time I realized it was about the author who is training his dog as a hospice volunteer. Meanwhile, my cousin had just passed away from a 2 year long battle w/ CA. The book was very good, but it tore my heart out. (hide spoiler)]

Winter Garden - My mom & I are besties, but when I was growing up I would go for months without saying a word to her, and we lived in the same house. I am also great friends w/ my sister, but I'll admit I have a little baggage from childhood due to Mom going easier on her than me. The present time story line really hit close to home for me b/c it touches on mother/daughter, sister/sister relationships. The 2nd storyline, the seige of Lenningrad in WWII.... I can't even imagine.....

Redeeming Love - I love this book, man how I love this book. The life this woman had, and how she was able to rebuild herself with her faith.. I don't normally read anything with religious themes or tones to them, but this book really hooked me.

These books didn't just make me cry... I had a sob-fest while reading them...

I love books that make me cry or laugh out loud, so I'll be going back and shelving some of these books.

Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World This didn't just make me cry....I'm talking downright, uncontrollable, sobbing. I've read it twice and cried just as hard the 2nd time around.

Vicki - I love books like that (my BF thinks I'm crazy, but what does he know, he's not a reader).

I've shelved this for future read.

Julia wrote: "Vicki - I love books like that (my BF thinks I'm crazy, but what does he know, he's not a reader).

I've shelved this for future read."

Julia you'll fall head over heels in love with Dewey. Look him up online too. There's lots of videos about him. :)

Books that made me cry - The Art of Racing in the Rain although I resented it because the author tried so hard to make his characters suffer.
Kafka on the Shore at the very end
The Time Traveler's Wife
Several places in the Lymond Chronicles by Dorothy Dunnett

I just remembered the first book that made me cry was Lassie Come-Home. I was in 3rd grade and it was some kind of free reading time and I was embarrassed to be crying at my desk but I couldn't help it.

Well, Dorothy Dunnett wrenches every emotion out of you that it is possible to have! Lassie Come Home, oh yes. And every other childhood book I read - Bambi, Heidi, Black Beauty, Little Women, The Secret Garden, Old Yeller, Gentle Ben - yeah, I liked animals.

As far as recent, I actually teared up at the end of Wild: From Lost to Found on the Pacific Crest Trail that I just finished.

@Robin and Laurel -- yes, I have reached a weepy place in my rereading of Checkmate!

And I always cry at the place Julia mentioned in Little Women even after repeated rereading.

And I teared up some during A Town Like Alice recently...

The last chapter I just read in Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants brought tears to my eyes. It is about raising kids and then letting them go. Isn't that one of the hardest things in life?

Currently reading Looking for Alaska by John Green...I hardly ever cry when reading but this one caught me unawares. Such powerful writing.

How We Die: the first chapter

Though there have been plenty, the one that always comes to mind is To Kill a Mockingbird because I was reading in on the subway when I started crying. I don't recall crying while reading it in high school though.

Yes Chinook, I can relate. I made the mistake of reading Death of a Salesman at the doctor's office waiting for my physical. I was crying in the reception room. People probably thought I got bad news, very embarrassing. :)

Leslie wrote: "@Robin and Laurel -- yes, I have reached a weepy place in my rereading of Checkmate!

And I always cry at the place Julia mentioned in Little Women even after repeated rereading. ..."

Terrible that bit of Little Women!

Never Let Me Go didn't make me cry, but I was in Japan touring Osaka Castle. I sat down to read it as I ate a snack and didn't get up until I'd read the whole book.

Bridge to Teribithia got me twice - while reading the book as an adult (read it in sixth grade in school as well) and watching the movie - on an airplane! I also cried watching My Sister's Keeper on a plane but can't recall if the book made me cry.

Bridge to Terabithia got me too, both the book and the movie!

LauraT wrote: "Terrible that bit of Little Women! .."

It was the first book to make me cry..., I remember my mother coming rushing into the room asking me what was wrong...

Books have made me sad and have made me feel for the characters but the only book that made me cry was The Last Song.

In The Two Towers I cried at the funeral of Boromir.

In We Need to Talk About Kevin I cried when Eva experienced an unexpected act of kindness after what must have felt like rejection by everyone around her.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Little Women
My Sister's Keeper
The Kite Runner

There's probably loads more but that's all I can think of right now.

Me Before You - don't think any book has ever made me cry harder - I was sobbing like a family member had died.

The Fault in Our Stars
Little Women

I'm sure there are many, many more.

Julia wrote: "LauraT wrote: "Terrible that bit of Little Women! .."

It was the first book to make me cry..., I remember my mother coming rushing into the room asking me what was wrong..."

Same for me!!!
One other, probably the second, was Un uomo by Oriana Fallaci. The fact that you knew the story was real was even more terrible for me

Beth wrote: "In The Two Towers I cried at the funeral of Boromir..."

Oh, I always cry at the end of the trilogy (in The Return of the King) when (view spoiler)[Bilbo leaves with Gandalf to sail to the Grey Havens. The whole thing about how Bilbo doesn't really fit in to village life any more makes me sad -- I am getting weepy just thinking about it. (hide spoiler)]

Off the too of my head, My Sisters Keeper, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and The Book Thief were all pretty big tear jerkers. I'm sure there are more, I do like a book to make me cry.

I listed a number of books in a previous post but Gemma reminded me that I cried after reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas.
The most recent books that have made me cry are A Land More Kind Than Home , Inside the O'Briens and Unbroken .

I have just remembered The Fault in Our Stars too. Pretty much cried from start to finish.

TFIOS. Divergent. Tomorrow's Wizard The Book Thief and I'm sure there are others.
EDIT: I just remembered Messenger. And I'm sure if I were to reread A Dangerous Path I would cry...

Since I responded last these books made me cry :
A Little Life
Boo
Aquarium

Chinook wrote: "Though there have been plenty, the one that always comes to mind is To Kill a Mockingbird because I was reading in on the subway when I started crying. I don't recall crying while readi..."

Oh dear... I'm reading this at work at the moment! Am finding it completely enthralling though. It's a few years since I saw the film.

Another that turned on the waterworks for me was The Grapes of Wrath, especially at the end, but I remember welling up a number of times as well as feeling very angry that their world had descended to such things.

Yes, there's something about animals - Besides the ones I mentioned above, Watership Down and The Incredible Journey definitely made me cry.

When an author is too obvious, as (in my opinion) in The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry, I feel manipulated and get turned off. When I was in college, Love Story was what The Fault in Our Stars is now. I devoured the book and saw the movie but I don't remember that it made me cry.

Definitely Elegance of the Hedgehog, The Little Prince, The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry

My Sweet Orange Tree definitely made me cry...

Three Comrades: A Novel of Germany Between the Wars almost made me cry. I don't remember if I have ever properly cried while reading. Sometimes I really want to cry because of book but it just doesn't happen :/

And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini and A Fine Balance by Rohinton Mistry, both of which I started reading on my commute to work (and then quickly decided to read them at home instead), are the only books that have made me cry--A Fine Balance made me outright sob. Wonderful books that I wish I had the strength to reread, but even thinking about them now gets me a bit.

A Little Life

Little Women was the first book that made me cry and there have been countless others over the years. Angela's Ashes - I had to put the book down because I was sobbing.

Death Be Not Proud was another early book I read that made me cry. The Road made me cry and also stayed with me a long time after reading it.
Any book that has a dog or cat die, I get reduced to a puddle. I try to avoid those books.

Ruth wrote: "Little Women was the first book that made me cry and there have been countless others over the years..."

I don't know if it was the first but I too cried when I read Little Women!

Sophie's Choice and Me Before You; Charlotte's Web and Black Beauty from the first time I read them as a child.

Shannon N wrote: "Great thread topic! Let's see... Books that have made me shed full-blown tears were:
The Green Mile by Stephen King (SO MUCH CRYING)
The Road by Cormac McCarthy
[book:Room|..."

Everything is Illuminated got me, too. A beautiful book. He broke up with Nicole Krauss and is dating an actress, Michelle Williams.

Noorilhuda wrote: "Most recently it was 'The Fault in Our Stars'
"

My daughter is reading this and loves it. She loved the line "My lungs suck at being lungs"

Greg wrote: "Yes Chinook, I can relate. I made the mistake of reading Death of a Salesman at the doctor's office waiting for my physical. I was crying in the reception room. People probably thought..."

I cried at the play.