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

donfers · 18-11-2010 11:59PM #1

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 · 19-11-2010 02:26AM

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 · 19-11-2010 10:54AM

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 · 19-11-2010 02:16PM

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 · 19-11-2010 02:25PM

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 · 19-11-2010 05:44PM

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 · 19-11-2010 05:47PM

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! · 19-11-2010 06:36PM

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

LenaClaire · 19-11-2010 07:28PM

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 · 19-11-2010 08:11PM

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 · 19-11-2010 09:23PM

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 · 19-11-2010 10:28PM

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 · 19-11-2010 11:03PM

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 · 20-11-2010 06:43PM

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 · 20-11-2010 09:35PM

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Giselle · 20-11-2010 11:59PM

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 · 21-11-2010 10:21AM

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 · 21-11-2010 08:50PM

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

Damian Duffy · 25-11-2010 01:03PM

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 · 26-11-2010 06:54PM

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 · 26-11-2010 11:55PM

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 · 27-11-2010 11:42AM

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JohnMearsheimer · 28-11-2010 01:15AM

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

garmishka · 28-11-2010 03:49PM

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 · 28-11-2010 03:56PM

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 · 28-11-2010 04:49PM

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 · 28-11-2010 11:01PM

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 · 28-11-2010 11:14PM

The Plague by Albert Camus

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

Scuid Mhór · 30-11-2010 05:03PM

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 · 30-11-2010 10:19PM

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 · 01-12-2010 02:08PM

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

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

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