# Books so sad they make you cry!



## chobitz (Nov 25, 2008)

I just finished Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and I cried at the end. What a sad ending to such a beautiful novel.

I LOVED this book even though I bawled like a baby.

So what books make you cry?


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

Hmmm.  I'll have to think about that.  It's been awhile since I cried during a book.  Movies, yes.  Books, it's been awhile.

Betsy


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## Guest (Dec 10, 2008)

*runs for cover*


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## Betsy the Quilter (Oct 27, 2008)

BJ could answer for LR.  Friday Night Knitting Club, was it?


Betsy


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## Guest (Dec 10, 2008)

Betsy the Quilter said:


> BJ could answer for LR. Friday Night Knitting Club, was it?
> 
> 
> Betsy


She was literally sobbing for the last half hour of the book.

At least I only tear up and sniffle at the end of you-know-what.


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince from The Cave to the end.  Parts of Deathly Hallows, but by the time I got to the end in the Great Hall, I was too numb to cry.

I'm sure there are others, but I read a lot of mystery and there's not much to cry over.

Jim, I'm reading your crying book.  I'm not too far into it, but I go into a whole different zone when I'm reading it.


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## Guest (Dec 10, 2008)

Gertie:  Stop posting and go read!


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

Bacardi Jim said:


> She was literally sobbing for the last half hour of the book.
> 
> At least I only tear up and sniffle at the end of you-know-what.


Watership Down


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## Leslie (Apr 7, 2008)

I cry easily, so I can't keep track of all of them....but I do remember having a really good sob at the end of *Charlotte's Web*. And as mentioned previously, *Watership Down*. And I was crying today at the end of *Standish* (but not sobbing uncontrollably).

L


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Bacardi Jim said:


> Gertie: Stop posting and go read!


Yessir, right away, sir.


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## ScrappingForever (Nov 26, 2008)

Large parts of HP and the Half Blood Prince and even larger parts of Deathly Hallows. Here and there in all of the books in the Outlander series. And so, so, so many others. I cry easily and often!


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## MonaSW (Nov 16, 2008)

Magic's Pawn, Magic's Promise, and Magic's Price 

Really got me the first time I read them. And I still occasionally re-read them.


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## Khabita (Oct 28, 2008)

Most recently, A Thousand Splendid Suns. The ending tore me apart.

And right after that I read The Book Thief, another multi-hanky book.

Sometimes I can't even go NEAR a sad book, and other times I'm irresistably drawn to them.


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## soapy70 (Oct 29, 2008)

Luanne Rice's 'Cloud Nine'. I cried during the whole last chapter. I love Luanne Rice's books but have not been able to pick one up since. It still makes me sad.


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## chynared21 (Oct 28, 2008)

*Richard Paul Evans' The Gift had me crying like a baby.*


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

ScrappingForever said:


> Here and there in all of the books in the Outlander series.


Dragonfly in Amber


Spoiler



the scene in the crofter's cottage just before Culloden.


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

HBP - From the cave to the end, several times during Deathly Hallows

Many times through the whole Outlander series. Voyager -


Spoiler



The scene at the printshop



The Book Thief

Snow Flower and the Secret Fan

The Kite Runner


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

luvmy4brats said:


> Many times through the whole Outlander series. Voyager -
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...


Sometimes I just pick up Voyager and read that scene. You can bet when I get Dragonfly and Voyager after the first of the year, I'll be highlighting that scene as well as the one I talked about earlier in Dragonfly.


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

Me too. I have them both bookmarked on Edgar. Several in Outlander too.


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## Guest (Dec 10, 2008)

As you all know, yes, I did cry at the end of "Friday Night Knitting Club". But I also cried at the end of its sequel "Knit Two".

As for HP, I cry while reading all of them from GOF onwards. The worst being during Deathly Hallows when


Spoiler



Dobby dies to protect Harry


.

But, it is not really anything new for me. I cry when reading a lot of different books. Lots of tear stained pages in our library. That is one drawback of the Kindle. I would hate to get tears on it.


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## Angela (Nov 2, 2008)

_Redeeming Love_ and _The Atonement Child_, both by Francine Rivers


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## WolfePrincess73 (Dec 2, 2008)

I know this may age me, but I still cry when I read "Little Women".


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

LuckyRainbow said:


> As for HP, I cry while reading all of them from GOF onwards. The worst being during Deathly Hallows when
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...


That scene is absolutely going to kill me in the movie. Every time I get to the point where


Spoiler



Fred dies


 I can't even cry. I just throw the book down and walk away.


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## Guest (Dec 10, 2008)

gertiekindle said:


> That scene is absolutely going to kill me in the movie. Every time I get to the point where
> 
> 
> Spoiler
> ...


It probably won't even be in the movie, seeing how Kloves has written the character off completely.


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## Jeff (Oct 28, 2008)

We Were Soldiers Once&#8230; And Young​


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## Gertie Kindle (Nov 6, 2008)

Bacardi Jim said:


> It probably won't even be in the movie, seeing how Kloves has written the character off completely.


He doesn't appear in HBP, but I haven't heard anything about DH. The actors haven't even been given the script yet.


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## Scathach (Dec 5, 2008)

A friend loaned me Marley and Me yesterday... I just got to the end


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## Linda Cannon-Mott (Oct 28, 2008)

Scathach said:


> A friend loaned me Marley and Me yesterday... I just got to the end


I have that on my wish list, also voted for in for bookclub.
Linda


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## Lotus (Oct 31, 2008)

Khabita said:


> Most recently, A Thousand Splendid Suns. The ending tore me apart.


I started bawling near the beginning, and hardly stopped. It was an awesome book.

Wild Swans (Jung Chang) made me cry, too. It's the story of three generations growing up in China through the Japanese occupation and through Communism/Mao's rule.


Spoiler



The part where they destroy the author's father's books is really sad/horrific


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## Tippy (Dec 8, 2008)

The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold -- it was so good and yet so sad.  The Friday Night Knitting Club -- bawled like a baby; The Bridges of Madison County - couldn't stop reading, couldn't stop crying.  Peony In Love by Lisa See was also very good, very sad and ultimately very hopeful.  Most of the time I prefer books that are not 'cry-worthy'.  It is more fun to laugh!


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## Mike D. aka jmiked (Oct 28, 2008)

This one got to me a lot. I loved the first two books about Norton (not yet on Kindle), but had this one on the shelf for the better part of two years before I could bring myself to read it.


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## Marci (Nov 13, 2008)

WolfePrincess73 said:


> I know this may age me, but I still cry when I read "Little Women".


Oh, yeah!

Love this book,

Marci


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## KeyboardKat (Dec 3, 2008)

"Earth Abides" by George R. Stewart
(Not yet available for Kindle)


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## Linda Cannon-Mott (Oct 28, 2008)

Kite Runner

A Thousand Splendid Suns

The Book Thief

There are many more!!


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## robin.goodfellow (Nov 17, 2008)

I cried on all of the Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants books. And through a lot of the Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (halfway thru the book, I went to Wikipedia to see how much was true. I don't recommend that as a course of action.).

And on "Standing in the Rainbow" by Fannie Flagg, but that's kind of a happy, end of an era cry. I still can't even talk about "Can't Wait to Get to Heaven". I had to give that one to Mom just to get it out of the house. She read it, and really liked it, and said she'd hang on to it against the day I felt like I could read it.


Spoiler



But it was about Aunt Elner from SITR, and she dies. And one of the older ladies in our church had just died b/c someone ran a traffic light and hit her. It was far too close to home.


 So, here this book arrives from the book club like 6 days later, and like an idiot I sat down and tried to read it. I still don't think I ever finished it.

And always on the last page of To Kill a Mockingbird.

There are lots of others too, but I try not to think about it.

~robin


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## Guest (Dec 19, 2008)

Robin, I really recommend you at least try _Can't Wait to Get to Heaven_ again someday. I don't know how far into it you made it, but there is a surprising twist about 2/3 to 3/4 of the way though. By the end of the book, the cry is very much like the one you describe for "Rainbow", but with several added uplifting consequences.


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## Daisysmama (Nov 12, 2008)

Scathach said:


> A friend loaned me Marley and Me yesterday... I just got to the end


I just finished this one and laughed so hard I cried throughout the book and then just bawled at the end. Wonderful story, especially if you are an animal lover or have ever had furry family members!!!


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## luvmy4brats (Nov 9, 2008)

I couldn't get through the first chapter without bawling. As a matter of fact, I couldn't stop crying the whole book. I'm a huge Christopher Reeve fan (to me, he IS Superman).


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## chobitz (Nov 25, 2008)

luvmy4brats said:


> I couldn't get through the first chapter without bawling. As a matter of fact, I couldn't stop crying the whole book. I'm a huge Christopher Reeve fan (to me, he IS Superman).


Not me..
Long story short most of the disabled community DID NOT like Reeves. I met him a few times I could not stand the man. He said accepting of ones disability is to become less than a whole human. After many people begged him to help fund raise for better technology for the disabled and to lobby for better rights for the disabled he refused. I know, I was one of them.
His answer was always cure or death. To accept anything less then 100% cure wasn't possible for him.


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## Angela (Nov 2, 2008)

_One Tuesday Morning_, Karen Kingsbury... not on Kindle and neither is the second book in series _Beyond Tuesday Morning_. These are fictional books about 9-11.... The third book in series is on Kindle. I haven't read this one yet, but I am sure it will make me cry, too!


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## Marci (Nov 13, 2008)

Angela said:


> _One Tuesday Morning_, Karen Kingsbury... not on Kindle and neither is the second book in series _Beyond Tuesday Morning_. These are fictional books about 9-11.... The third book in series is on Kindle. I haven't read this one yet, but I am sure it will make me cry, too!


Angela,

Have you read the first two? This is a series I'm really interested in.

What are your thoughts about them?

Thanks,

Marci


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## Angela (Nov 2, 2008)

Marci said:


> Angela,
> 
> Have you read the first two? This is a series I'm really interested in.
> 
> ...


Yes, I have the first 2 DTB's. They are very good. I read the first one with my book club and then had to wait on pins and needles til the second book came out! I had no idea there was a third one until I got my kindle and started searching for Karen Kingsbury books! Wish you lived close, I would loan them to you!


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## Marci (Nov 13, 2008)

Awesome.  Ka-ching!

If I lived close to you, I'd borrow them  

Marci


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## Dazlyn (Dec 20, 2008)

I still remember reading Where the Red Fern Grows when I was about 15 (loooong time ago).  My mom came to get me because dinner was ready.  She saw me crying and just patted me on the shoulder and left me alone to cry.  I don't think I ate dinner that evening.  I still remember how that book moved me.  I have cried from reading some others too, but I think Where the Red Fern Grows was the most memorable for me.


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## Susan Umpleby (Dec 20, 2008)

One book that I can not read in public is "Where the Red Fern Grows" by Wilson Rawls.  I break down every time I read the last couple of chapters.


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## pstanton (Dec 21, 2008)

I'm a guy, and as such I usually don't cry when I read/read books that will make me cry. HOWEVER, when I read Reapers Gale, Book 7 in the Malazan Book of the Fallen Series by Steven Erickson.... When the mage Beak sacrifices himself for his friends (aka, his squadmates) I got pretty choked up. It was an amazing scene.


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## Guest (Dec 21, 2008)

Any book (or movie)about animals will get me emotional.  Marley and Me was a bad one.  The movie is coming out soon and I will be taking my sister and her grand daughters to see it.  In a way I dread it.

It's not just animals but that is what I am most sensitive to.

There are several scenes in "Caught Stealing" that got me going to.  For a free book it and its sequels are very good.


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## Guest (Dec 22, 2008)

Vampyre said:


> Any book (or movie)about animals will get me emotional. Marley and Me was a bad one. The movie is coming out soon and I will be taking my sister and her grand daughters to see it. In a way I dread it.
> 
> It's not just animals but that is what I am most sensitive to.
> 
> There are several scenes in "Caught Stealing" that got me going to. For a free book it and its sequels are very good.


*meow*


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## Daisysmama (Nov 12, 2008)

This weekend...first Marley and Me....

Grogan got me again with The Longest Trip Home...yup, bawled like a baby at the ending

then Dewey, the Spencer Iowa Library Cat.....more bawling at the end....

I need to get into a juicy mystery to get away from this list...although it is a bit cathartic to clear out the tear ducts.

And yes, I would recommend all three of these...but maybe not all on one weekend!!


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## Guest (Dec 22, 2008)

I am an idiot.  I will eventually read Alex and Me and I will read Dewy as well.  I know what will happen but I am a glutton for punishment I guess.


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## James Conway (Jul 7, 2011)

As a child I cried at the end of The Hobbit when Thorin Oakenshield died. I think that was what did it for me. I look for books that I have an actual physical response to. That is how I define quality writing.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

The ends of "Harry Potter and Goblet of Fire," "Order of the Phoenix," "Half-Blood Prince" and several parts of "Deathly Hallows" were hard.

"The House of Mirth" by Edith Wharton is devastating.

The ending of "The Count of Monte Cristo" when Edmond and Mercedes finally acknowledge each other.  Harsh.


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

I have actually gotten to emotionally vested in characters in Stephen King's books I have nearly wept when things happened to them.  In Bag of Bones I got very upset when a bad thing happened to a character near the end.  Then, in the final chapter of the Dark Tower - well - let's say that what happened to Oy nearly had me bawling.


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

Books and stories just don't make me cry, though there are some with endings that come awfully close to doing the job. These include:

"The Graveyard Reader," "A Saucer of Loneliness," "When You Care, When You Love," and "The Girl Who Knew What They Meant," all by Theodore Sturgeon
_Mystical Union_ and _Praise the Human Season_, both by Don Robertson
_1968_, by Joe Haldeman
"A Rose for Ecclesiastes," by Roger Zelazny
"Jeffty Is Five," and "Paladin of the Lost Hour," both by Harlan Ellison
_Rogue Moon_, by Algis Budrys
_Of Mice and Men_, by John Steinbeck

This is not nearly a complete list.

But I'm beginning to think there aren't many baby boomers on this forum (or maybe I was just blind & missed the mention in the other posts): I mean, come on, gang -- where in the name of whatever deity you care to mention is Fred Gipson's _Old Yeller_?


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## Tony Richards (Jul 6, 2011)

Not cry exactly, but the ending to John O'Brien's _Leaving Las Vegas_ -- yep, the one that got turned into that Nick Cage movie -- is numbingly sad. Once Ben has died, Sera is left with absolutely nothing, not him, not her old life, not any real prospect of a new one. She has loved and well and truly lost, and it is devastating.


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## Steverino (Jan 5, 2011)

I cried at the end of _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_ when I read it in high school.


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## Klip (Mar 7, 2011)

"Never Let Me Go" by Kazuo Ishiguro - it is just unbearably sad.  I cried for a long time after finishing that book, just thinking back on it would set me off days afterwards.  Saddest book I've ever read.


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

I read a lot of true crime books, and those usually make me cry, especially the end of Joe McGinnis's _Fatal Vision _ when he describes the kitchen in an apartment that's been sealed for almost 10 years during a murder investigation.

I cried the first time I read _The Return of the King _ and Frodo says, "I am glad that you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam."

_Cold Sassy Tree _ made me cry too--Burns just does such a good job nailing the voice of the 14-year-old narrator Will. There are others, but I can't think of them now.


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## Andrew McCoy (Sep 17, 2011)

James Conway said:


> As a child I cried at the end of The Hobbit when Thorin Oakenshield died. I think that was what did it for me. I look for books that I have an actual physical response to. That is how I define quality writing.


I like to pretend that I'm a hard case but Out of Africa by Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) makes me cry every time.


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## lea_owens (Dec 5, 2011)

If pets die in books, that makes me cry - Marley and Me is off my list simply because I know I'll cry too much.


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## DYB (Aug 8, 2009)

purplepen79 said:


> I cried the first time I read _The Return of the King _ and Frodo says, "I am glad that you are here with me. Here at the end of all things, Sam."


Is that what he says in the book? In the movie they changed it to "I'm glad to be here with you..." Which I find much more poignant because earlier when the fellowship split up he tells Sam "I'm glad you are here with me."


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

The ending of Watership Down zapped me good.


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## djgross (May 24, 2011)

Umbrella Summer was my selection in this month's Quasi-Official Book Game Klub. A deeply moving upper middle grade/YA book.


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## GerrieFerrisFinger (Jun 1, 2011)

Bacardi Jim said:


> *runs for cover*


Expecting a flood?


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## Annie (May 28, 2009)

Scathach said:


> A friend loaned me Marley and Me yesterday... I just got to the end


I believe that's the first book, other than Harry Potter, that made me cry. I occasionally tear up, but Marley and Me had me going. It was embarrassing.


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## Indy (Jun 7, 2010)

Posessing The Secret Of Joy, by Alice Walker.  Holy cow.


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## Seleya (Feb 25, 2011)

Watership Down, A Game of Thrones


Spoiler



when Lady gets killed just for being there


, The Call of the Wild, The Yearling (read it once, it was enough). I stear clear from any book about animals in which the animal dies, those turn me into a sobbing wreck.


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## sophia76 (Nov 21, 2011)

chobitz said:


> I just finished Snow Flower and the Secret Fan and I cried at the end. What a sad ending to such a beautiful novel.
> 
> I LOVED this book even though I bawled like a baby.
> 
> So what books make you cry?


One Day by David Nicholls I love this book but I really would not have had the heart to end it like that.


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## lea_owens (Dec 5, 2011)

I'd forgotten The Yearling and The Call of The Wild! Oh, yes, I well remember those tears. And My Friend Flicka. And The Incredible Journey by Sheila Burnford (oh my, I can feel myself tearing up just thinking of this one).

This animal/tears theme started early. When I was three I was given a copy of 'Little Black A Pony' and I remember having it read to me a few times, then I'd read it over and over, each time crying for Little Black when he ran away because his 'boy' had moved on to the bigger horse... I could 'feel' the anguish and heartache that Little Black was going through (he was a fictional pony, of course he didn't have real emotions, but I had them for him). It was just a toddler book, for goodness sakes, and I was reading it and crying my eyes out before the age of four! Oh my goodness, I just looked it up on Amazon - I haven't seen it for over forty years, and there he is again, how I loved that pony! I didn't even realise it was one of these little Literacy Project Books, for some reason I remember it as a big, lavishly coloured, expensive picture book (I guess it did seem big and flash when I was three).

This is where my 'tears for sad, missing, dying and dead pets' all began: http://www.amazon.com/Little-Black-Stallion-Literacy-Project/dp/0760721920/ref=sr_1_cc_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1323556348&sr=1-1-catcorr

And, for interest's sake, just to see the influence a book can have, here's a photo of me in 1965 or '66 on my own 'Little Black'... lol... I was given the pony when I was four, after crying over the book for almost a year, and at 52 I still ride horses, although my riding style is a little better than in this photo as I've picked up quite a few national and state champions over the years, and I'm riding big 'white' stallions rather than a little black gelding (I'm the 'larger' lady at the bottom of the flyer on my favourite stallion, that's my daughter at the top on our other QH stallion) So I need to say 'thank you' to Walter Farley for writing a little book fifty years ago that helped shape my life!


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## pearledgar (Dec 27, 2009)

Cutting for Stone, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns...some of the best books I have ever read and I cried...a lot!


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## Sunshine22 (Feb 18, 2010)

The Book Thief.   I finished it last night, and was crying so much I'm sure my husband thought I'd lost my mind.

I have some odd others... The Passage, Game of Thrones series, The Stand.


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## CK Kennedy (Sep 2, 2011)

They sure knew how to jerk tears in our tender growing up years.

For me, Lonesome Dove comes to mind and it wasn't even at the end of the book (but near). After hundreds of pages of getting to know the characters and, in the hands of McMurtry, that one just did me in.


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## Meemo (Oct 27, 2008)

The most recent one was *The Art of Racing in the Rain*. I knew it was coming, I tried to fight it, but it just tore me up.

*The Notebook* also did me in a few years ago.

Books don't often make me cry - I'm a big crybaby in movies & TV shows, but that's usually a combination of the music and the story. I can just listen to certain movie soundtracks and be reduced to a hot blubbering weepy mess. Books, though, not so much.


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## Nicholas Andrews (Sep 8, 2011)

For my money, nothing ever beat the sadness in Where the Red Fern Grows. It was a required book for my class in the sixth grade, and I remember just about everyone came in the day after we had to read the part where Old Dan and Little Ann die, and everyone almost without exception was in tears.


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## jlee745 (Jul 27, 2010)

I guess I'm a big cry baby.   I have teared up with at least half of Nicholas Sparks books. I teared up with The Hunger Games.
Balaspa I will be starting Bag of Bones as soon as I finish Nicholas Sparks new book The Best of Me. So sounds like I will be "tearing up" with that one too.
I have Bag of Bones(A&E channel movie) recorded on my dvr waiting on me to finish the book.


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## prairiesky (Aug 11, 2009)

The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, A Dog's Purpose and The Art of Racing in the Rain...all 'dog' books
Animal stories just draw me in and break my heart


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## LilianaHart (Jun 20, 2011)

I cried like a baby at Dragonfly in Amber. I mean I bawled. I was an inconsolable mess, and my husband had no idea what to do with me  I also cried at Knight in Shining Armor by Jude Deveraux and When He Was Wicked by Julia Quinn.


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## purplepen79 (May 6, 2010)

DYB said:


> Is that what he says in the book? In the movie they changed it to "I'm glad to be here with you..." Which I find much more poignant because earlier when the fellowship split up he tells Sam "I'm glad you are here with me."


Interesting. I typed it directly from my paperback copy of _Return of the King_ and went back and checked it twice to make sure I had the wording right. I didn't realize they changed it in the movie, though it makes sense that they would add contractions, etc. Tolkien's writing style has the more formal tone of his times that wouldn't play as well on screen, methinks.

And I cry at sad pet stories too. When Jack died in _On The Shores of Silver Lake_, I cried for a whole afternoon. He was such a faithful dog, following the Ingalls family under their wagon hither and yon.


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