What book(s) made you cry?

[Jilly_in_VA]

I just read a column on this and neither of mine was mentioned so here they are. One is a YA by Tiffany D. Jackson entitled Monday's Not Coming. It has stuck with me hard and I may have to go back and read it again. It concerns two young teen girls who have been best friends forever. They're separated every summer when Claudia goes south to visit her grandmother, but they write letters. This particular summer, she doesn't get any back from her friend Monday, and when school starts, Monday doesn't show up. When she goes looking for her, she's stonewalled at every turn by Monday's mother and the authorities. The climax of the book is particularly horrifying and what happens after is even worse. Not exactly for the faint of heart. I cried my eyes out for both girls and the book has stuck with me since.

The other is probably little-known in this country and might be classified as a romance, but I'm not so sure--Song of Songs, by Beverley Hughesdon. I first discovered it years ago in our library in Tennessee and borrowed it several times. Then it disappeared. I finally bought my own copy through a used bookseller on Amazon. It concerns the gently brought up daughter of British nobility who comes of age just before WWI. She falls in love with an officer and becomes engaged just before the war. When war breaks out, she volunteers as a nurse. Much of the book is taken up with her horrific experiences there, and after the war, the transition of her and the survivors (her fiancé and one of her adored twin brothers are not among them), and her subsequent hasty marriage to a man many consider "beneath" her. For me, it bore some strong parallels to the TV show "China Beach", which I loved even though many episodes brought me to tears because I lost someone precious to me and other friends in Vietnam.

What are your tear-bringers?

[Glorfindel]

1. "A Tale of Two Cities, "Little Women" "The Yearling"

[leftieNanner]

2. I read the Golden Compass trilogy aloud to my daughter

The third one just about did me in. Trying to read and sobbing at the same time is a challenge.

I had a book as a child called Blitz. It's about a volunteer fire horse. He is injured in an accident and sold to a cruel man. The abuse was horrible. My mother would walk past my room and hear me crying and know that I was reading it AGAIN. She got rid of it. I was able to find it many years later online.

Several Thomas Costain books - The Black Rose and Son of A Hundred Kings come to mind.

I love books that make me cry.

[bottomofthehill]

3. Jamie Raskin's recent book about the suicide of his son and the insurrection.

I am not a very emotional person. More of a Marcus Aurelius On Stoicism reader but the book Mr Raskin wrote, Unthinkable left me in tears more than once. I actually put the book down and walked away a couple of times.

Another impeachment manager, Madeline Dean co wrote a book with her son called Under our Roof which was a story of her sons addiction. Another difficult read.

[CrispyQ]

4. "Poland," by James A. Mitchner.

Other books have made me cry, but not like that one.

[LakeArenal]

5. The Bible.

[TexasDem69]

6. The Lovely Bones

[alittlelark]

7. 'Where the Red Fern Grows'

[BWdem4life]

11. Ah yes, Dan and Ann. I should read that one again. nt

[Srkdqltr]

8. Memories InThe Drift, by Melissa Payne

[hermetic]

9. It's been a very long time

I cried at the end of LOTR, also Watership Down because I did not want either of those to end.

Surprisingly, a few months ago I cried at the end of A Heart Full of Headstones, because I love Ian Rankin and Inspector Rebus so much. It just really got to me.

[yellowdogintexas]

14. Watership Down was a heart breaker.

One I will not read again.

[BWdem4life]

10. "Bridge to Terabithia."

I made the mistake of admitting it made me cry to my dad, who ridiculed me. Real men don't cry.

[qwlauren35]

12. Ernest Gaines' A Lesson Before Dying

I wept when I got to the end.

[yellowdogintexas]

13. too many to count.

The ones with animals are the worst. I just don't read them or watch movies with animals as the main character.

I will watch a movie if I have verified that the animal doesn't die.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

15. I'm a soft touch, believe it or not

I can cry over all kinds of books--and have. Even the ones that make me cry because I'm happy for the characters.

Some of the memorable tear-fests for me:

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Arikawa Hiro. Even thinking about it has me tearing up. One of my favorite books, all-time.

Every book about the Holocaust, fiction or non. No exceptions.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown. I made the mistake of reading this when I was pregnant with my sprog. I'd have to put it down for days at a time because it upset me so much. Which is saying something given how I've always been a huge fan of some seriously messed up police procedurals with vivid descriptions of murder and corpses not to mention some very twisted and sadistic villains.

Tale of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. The story arc involving Lady Murasaki, in particular. Everything about her relationship with Hikaru (protagonist--he's no hero) is twisted and yet heart-wrenching. Don't even get me started on it.

[mentalsolstice]

16. The Fault in Our Stars

I always avoid books when an animal is a central character. And I’m usually not into YA books. However, one summer I was stuck in our camper, by myself, in a local state park while some work was being done on our house. I saw on GoodReads a lot of talk about “The Fault in Our Stars.” Oh man….when I finished it I wanted to throw it across the room. Unfortunately, I had read it as an ebook, didn’t want to break an iPad….When the movie came out a friend, who hadn’t read the book, asked me to go see it. I said nope, won’t see it until it streams and I can watch it at home. I couldn’t imagine watching it in a public theater. Because when I cry at a movie it’s an ugly cry, loudly sobbing and quite snotty, so much that my mom would get embarrassed and we’d have to wait until everyone else had exited.

I usually don’t cry when reading a book, but that one got to me.