Name three books that you have read in the last 5 years that made you cry

donfers

The book thief


one day


the road


on a completely unrelated note, i just finished netherland, this is not a spoiler by the way, as it is made clear from the start that chuck dies, but who killed chuck, no it didn't make me cry, a decent novel but I manned up and moved on

Einhard

donfers wrote: »

The book thief


one day


the road


on a completely unrelated note, i just finished netherland, this is not a spoiler by the way, as it is made clear from the start that chuck dies, but who killed chuck, no it didn't make me cry, a decent novel but I manned up and moved on

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas. Because it was so painfully bad.

Eliot Rosewater

I've never cried over a book because I just don't cry in general. I wouldn't even get that emotional about a book. I'd get far more emotional about a poem, because it's shorter and more concentrated and can live completely in your memory.

LadyW

Not sure I can name 3.... but the most recent book I read that made my cry was Bury Your Dead by Louise Penny. A stunning book but by an amazingly talented author.

Malari

The Half-Blood Prince - JK Rowling
- Not for the bit when

Dumbledore died

but when Harry has to force-feed him the potion

The Road - Cormac McCarthy
- The scene where the father takes literally all the thief's belongings and the boy gets really upset. But I have a feeling it's because I remembered the scene in the movie, which also really upset me.

The End of Mr Y - Scarlett Thomas
- There's a scene where the main character is in the mind of a mouse that is being thrown around a lab by students, and the mouse wants to get back inside his cage. I just hate animal cruelty and I got really outraged and upset!

I actually think these are the only ones that made me cry. I'll get more upset with small incidents rather than the sad finale that the author builds up to!

Busi_Girl08

The Book Thief
The last book in the His Dark Materials series
For some reason I got a little teary at the end of the Picture of Dorian Gray.

Zxc

donfers wrote: »

The book thief


one day


the road

Donfers, when I read the title of this thread, these same three books popped into my mind.

Great minds & fools etc quickly followed!

I loved One Day and I'm convinced the upcoming film version will be a disaster! Laughter and tears, but mostly laughter.
The other two books were harder going. Few if any laughs but definitely some tears.

raah!

I welled whilst reading a particular passage of 'Demons' by Dostoyevsky. Though I must have been having my period then.

LenaClaire

The Book Thief

Medic (John Nichol and Tony Rennell) - it is about the history of Medics in the military

Little Women - I have read it many times and I always cry

squeakyduck

The half Blood prince did make my eyes water a little alright!
Marley and me, I am such a sucker for sentimental animal stories.
The Naked and the Dead made me cry at the beginning.

Zxc

Zxc wrote: »

Donfers, when I read the title of this thread, these same three books popped into my mind.

Great minds & fools etc quickly followed!

I loved One Day and I'm convinced the upcoming film version will be a disaster! Laughter and tears, but mostly laughter.
The other two books were harder going. Few if any laughs but definitely some tears.

I should have added "Room" by Emma Donoghue. Very moving in parts.

Dades

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

The last book in the His Dark Materials series

Wasn't within the last five years, but I got a bit of dirt in my manly eye reading the end of The Amber Spyglass.

Asphyxia

Jodie Picolt - The Pact. I found this book so sad I cried so much through.

Stieg Larsson - The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

Everytime Lisbeth was getting sexually abused and Harriet it was so upsetting it was so graphic and detailed I found it really hard to read.

Stephen King - Shawshank Redemption. Happy tears and sad tears were shed through this book

krankykitty

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein was the last one that made me cry. Dog lovers will know what I mean

And in the same vein, Marley and Me.

Plowman

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Giselle

There's been more than three to be honest.

Off the top of my head: Memoirs of A Geisha by Arthur Goldin, The Shipping News by Annie Proulx, and The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

itac

One that I always cry at is "I heard the owl call my name" by Margaret Craven. Read it as a kid and cried then, reading it as an adult last year, I cried even more!

Harry Potter & the Deathly Hallows-battle scene at the end always makes me well up....even though I'm far beyond the age the books were aimed at..:o

Sheila Hancock's "The two of us"....if you've ever lost someone you loved deeply, it'll resonate with you.

blue_steel

"The Story of Edgar Sawtelle"
made me cry several times including once on the bus :rolleyes:

Damian Duffy

The Road and Tortilla Flat. Don't think there has been anything else. Not even sure why Tortilla flat got me but it just did.

whywonder

My sister's keeper had me in tears from the first paragraph- that the book survived at all is testament to the quality of the paper it was printed on.

Girl with a Dragon Tattoo- completely agree with the previous poster on that one. Horrific imagery, very well written. Cried again watching the movie version.


And on the Harry Potter bandwagon- the last book, where

Fred dies

On a side note- The Road is an excellent book but the closest I came to crying was when they found

the prisoners locked in that horrible little room.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

I cried like a little bitch at a lot of books in my childhood (Chronicles of Narnia, Animal Farm, Harry Potter etc), but in the past five years hmm...I definitely welled up at Lolita, Wild Swans and Brokeback Mountain (short story but whatever).

I hate those emotional pornography books that are trying to make you cry, I think it's always so obvious and can either ruin an otherwise good book or more likely confirm your worst suspicions about an OK book. A book has to resonate with you somehow to make you actually cry and it takes either your novelist-soulmate or a very skillfull and subtle writer to elicit that reaction without you realising/caring what's going on without feeling like a wanktissue.

Plowman

This post has been deleted.

JohnMearsheimer

I'll admit the Remains of the Day made me a bit misty eyed. I guess we all wonder what could have been.

garmishka

Emma Big Fang wrote: »

hmm...I definitely welled up at Lolita, Wild Swans and Brokeback Mountain (short story but whatever).

Wild Swans was so touching. What a life story. She managed to make her family history encompass the history of all of China. Powerful read.

Another Chinese book made me cry, when I was a young teenager. Chinese Cinderella by Adeline Yen Mah,

when her father chose her pet duck to test the discipline of the dogs, who turned out not to be so disciplined after all... My heart broke for the poor girl.

Brenireland

the book that made me col(cry out loud) was the Book: Why The Long Face?-By Horse McHorse

basically its based on a true story about a horse with Quite a long face...

Be||e

JohnMearsheimer wrote: »

I'll admit the Remains of the Day made me a bit misty eyed. I guess we all wonder what could have been.

Ditto.

Recently, I found myself crying numerous times while reading A Thousand Splendid Suns. I think there was a touch of the aformentioned "emotional pornography" about this book.

pq0n1ct4ve8zf5

Plowman wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jodi_Picoult#Bibliography

For example...

If a book is sad it's sad, fair enough. But if a book is based entirely around the death of an animal/child or someone's hard life, and has nothing more to say about that than pointing out how sad it is and maybe throwing in some platitudes about treasuring special moments with loved ones and being thankful then it's teetering towards that territory. There are plenty of books that deal with upsetting subject matter but have more to recommend them (even if it's just an interesting structure, an original literary style, or just a plot more original than "PEOPLE I LOVED DIED AND IT WAS REALLY SAD") than most of the blurbs on the jacket containing the word "tears".

Bodhisopha

The Plague by Albert Camus

When the child died, or maybe Tarrou, probably both.

Scuid Mhór

Don't remember crying while reading any particular book, though I did start feeling a little emotional at some point during the five people you meet in heaven and I definitely choked and had to fight back the urge to let the tears out when reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows the first time - the part where he get reassurance just before entering the forbidden forest.

damselnat

Another vote for Brokeback Mountain here! And in the same collection of stories, can't remember the name of it, but the one where

the son ends up in a very bad accident and goes riding around 'terrorising' the locals - horrible ending

Also, the Age of Innocence made me cry quite a lot, at the very end!!

Grievous

Probably not cry, but I'll echo the emotional sentiments like other posters who have read The Book Thief.
Fantastic read.

Wisco

Marley and Me
Water for Elephants- made me think of my grandparents and definitely got a bit teary.
Harry Potter, 6th book (name escapes me right now)
I'm going to have to check out the Book Thief and see if it lives up to the hype

Grievous

The Book Thief is only 5 euros in Tescos.
Take that recession, Cowen!

The Book Thief also has some smaller stories within the story with some simple, effective illustrations to boot.

It sure lived up to the hype for me. I don't usually read modern books that are hyped so far: With the exception being Life Of Pi and The Curious Incident Of The Dog In The Night Time.

sycea

Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro had me weeping at several points.

Like a lot of people, I found The Road to be very upsetting - its one of my absolute favourites and I still cry at the same point each time I read it.

The only other book I remember getting choked up over was The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman at the moment when

Bod asks Death if he can go with her, so he can be with the ghosts properly, and she tells him no, not yet.

A really stunning book, that one.

emeraldstar

Grievous wrote: »

Probably not cry, but I'll echo the emotional sentiments like other posters who have read The Book Thief.
Fantastic read.

I really didnt think much of The Book Thief. I started it expecting it to be great because of all I'd heard, but actually found it a bit boring. Definitely not tear-inducing.

Having a hard time thinking of any recent books that did reduce me to tears ...apart from that scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Hrududu

I actually thought that The Book Thief was guilty of the 'emotional string pulling' thing that Electro-Bitch touched on. For that reason I couldn't warm to it.

One that caught me by surprise was Watership Down. There was a story in it about how their rabbit God got his tail and ears. I have no idea but it nearly had me in tears. Which was on the train, and very embarassing.

giddybootz

Busi_Girl08 wrote: »

The last book in the His Dark Materials series

I didn't just cry at this...i sobbed, loudly!!

ncmc

The Book Thief
Marley and Me
Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

(when Dumbledore dies)

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

(When Hedwig died)

I know that's more than 3, but i'm a rulebreaker me! I'm not much of a crier in books or movies, but an animal dying is sure to set me off.

Books that had a real emotional impact on me without making me cry (ie in a total funk for about 2 days afterwards):

The Road
We Need to Talk About Kevin

Oral Slang

Only cried at 2 books ever that I recall - One Day & The Time Traveller's Wife.

I read a good few books that people have mentioned here: The Book Thief, My Sister's Keeper etc. but while I thought they were sad, I didn't cry.

E.T.

Probably the best example of emotional string pulling, but Love Story makes me bawl my eyes out every time I read it.

Denerick

I'm a man. Ergo, I do not cry. But regardless, some books have forced this heart of stone to crack, but for a moment:

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - The man shouldn't have to hide his painting in his closet... Get it... *nudgenudge*

Turn of the Screw by Henry James - creeped me out big time.

To Kill a Mockingbird - no explanation necessary.

MonicaBing

A crack in forever by Jeanne Brewster had me in pieces...
The time Travellers wife did it too as did the Lovely Bones and a Boy called it...

point7

The Time Traveler's Wife also
HP & the half blood prince
A Thousand Splendid Suns... I can't rem exactly if it made me physically cry but I was certainly left feeling emotionally wrung from it. Amazing tale.

kraggy

A Thousand Splendid Suns.

I'm a 32 year old guy, but cried my eyes out reading the last few chapters in Starbucks in Kuala Lumpur airport.

Really got to me. But felt compelled to keep reading it even though I was openly crying in public.

Gave it to my friends today as a present. Unbelievable book.

flavaflave

"Tuesdays with Morrie" - absolutely beautiful

flyaway.

If I Stay by Gayle Forman- had me in absolute floods of tears

Before I Die by Jenny Downham

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

Carawaystick

The line "Well, I'm Back" allways brings floods of tears to my eyes in LotR

The end of the boy in the striped Pajamas

can't remember any others

Monkeybonkers

Tuesdays with Morrie had me pretty teary-eyed.

Caros

Another crier here at Tuesday's with Morrie.

The Time Traveller's Wife.

The Lovely Bones.

crummymummy

Hi all, my first post here!

''The Kite Runner'', ''Room'' and ''When Rabbit Howls'' all had me teary eyed.

sudzs

Books rarely make me cry so can onky come up with one! Room