# What books have made you cry?



## Joseph_Evans (Jul 24, 2011)

For me it's been His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, Troy by Adele Geras, and Broken Sky by Chris Wooding. What are yours?


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## NogDog (May 1, 2009)

It's predictable, I suppose: _Marley & Me_ by John Grogan.


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## Not Here (May 23, 2011)

_Where the Red Fern Grows_. I cried like a baby.


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## theaatkinson (Sep 22, 2010)

Time Travellers wife. even though I just KNEW it was coming, I still cried


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## Jorja Tabu (Feb 6, 2012)

Watership Down.  And always, always always The Last Unicorn, by Peter Beagle (the movie too, even with the silly soundtrack and anime eyes!).


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## LilianaHart (Jun 20, 2011)

I sobbed (I mean ugly cry) during Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon. My husband was horrified.


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## Sunshine22 (Feb 18, 2010)

LilianaHart said:


> I sobbed (I mean ugly cry) during Dragonfly in Amber by Diana Gabaldon. My husband was horrified.


This was me reading The Book Thief. My husband wasn't sure what to do...


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## Not Here (May 23, 2011)

Sunshine22 said:


> This was me reading The Book Thief. My husband wasn't sure what to do...


That one is on my list but I'm waiting until I can cry without freaking out my kids.


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

The Little Prince.  Every damn time.


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## tedkeller (Feb 14, 2012)

The Little Prince, and Sirens of Titan - real tear jerkers


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## Selina Fenech (Jul 20, 2011)

I'm with you on His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman-

"


Spoiler



I'll be looking for you, Will, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you... We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams... And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they wont' just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight...


" 
Waaaaaaaaaaaaah

Also found myself sobbing a few times through the Hunger Games trilogy, and on a slight tangent, manga, Fruits Basket (Furuba) is great for a good cry, both happy and sad crying.


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## TheSFReader (Jan 20, 2011)

(Indie) Debora Geary's Witches books make me cry (but don't tell my wife, she thinks I'm a heartless macho man).
Also "The Lion" by Joseph Kessel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lion) and IIRC Call of the Wild and White Fang (by Jack London)


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## Harry Shannon (Jul 30, 2010)

Watership Down
Love in the Time of Cholera
Marley and Me
The Road (the ending)


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## Todd Trumpet (Sep 7, 2011)

"GRAVITY'S RAINBOW"...

...but for the wrong reasons.

Todd


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## Beatriz (Feb 22, 2011)

NogDog said:


> It's predictable, I suppose: _Marley & Me_ by John Grogan.


I cried with Marley and Me too, with the book and the movie. And the ones that made me cry are tons, too many to list here.


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## Carolyn62 (Sep 5, 2011)

Daughter of the Forest 
Watership Down


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## Seleya (Feb 25, 2011)

The Yearling
The Call of the Wild
Watership Down.
A Game of Thrones


Spoiler



when Lady gets killed


...And just about every book in which an animal dies, I don't read those if I just can.


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## 4eyesbooks (Jan 9, 2012)

Don't hate me, but Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson.  I'm such a sap!


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## sebat (Nov 16, 2008)

Most recently...

Water for Elephants
The Art of Racing in the Rain
Immigrants


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## cheriereich (Feb 12, 2011)

The Harry Potter series.


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

Actually, it's not a book, but Puella Magi Madoka Magica. The whole of the last episode, from like a minute in to the final image, then I couldn't sleep that night for thinking about it.

Ah, and _kind_ of a book, Katawa Shoujo, Hanako's path, by the end of it I was sniffling over every tiny little thing and sobbing to some extent. The good end for Rin's path got me too.


Spoiler



"To me it seems like the entire world really could fit there, between those small arms of hers, inside of her all-encompassing embrace."


 *sniff*


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## Jorja Tabu (Feb 6, 2012)

Seleya said:


> ...And just about every book in which an animal dies, I don't read those if I just can.


So true. I wish they came with a warning--even fantasy animals, as in The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell...Ugly crying is right!


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## Elizabeth Ann West (Jul 11, 2011)

Harry Potter, but this is funny. My sister and I checked out Books 1-3 from our public library over Christmas vacation in 1999. I read 2,3 then 1. She read 1, 2, 3. I cried my EYES out reading Book 1. She cried her eyes out when she finished book 3. 

Beat the Turtle Drum (really hard as I have two sisters, and yes, we climbed trees)

Bridge to Terabithia


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## Buttercup (Oct 28, 2008)

4eyesbooks said:


> Don't hate me, but Suzanne's Diary for Nicholas by James Patterson. I'm such a sap!


Same here, and also:
Message in a Bottle

Most recently:
A Dog's Purpose


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## wdeen (Dec 29, 2011)

Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally. The movie also made me cry.


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## DrJeckyll101 (Feb 13, 2012)

The first book to make me cry was Where The Red Fern Grows.


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## Kali.Amanda (Apr 30, 2011)

There was a passage in The Lovely Bones with the father that completely unraveled me. I was on the bus and the old lady sitting across from me was heartbroken watching me fall apart. It was a raw moment that stopped me from reading the rest. I just couldn't go on. I haven't picked it up again.


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## Tony Rabig (Oct 11, 2010)

I'd swear we had a thread on this topic a while back, but what the heck...

I don't recall breaking down crying over a book, but here are some stories that came close to doing the job:

Theodore Sturgeon: "Bright Segment," "A Saucer of Loneliness," "Hurricane Trio," "The Girl Who Knew What They Meant," "Slow Sculpture," "The Man Who Lost the Sea," "When You Care, When You Love," "The Graveyard Reader," _More Than Human_

Roger Zelazny: "A Rose for Ecclesiastes"

Harlan Ellison: "Paladin of the Lost Hour," "The Function of Dream Sleep"

Evan Hunter: _Far from the Sea_

Robert Anderson: _I Never Sang for My Father_, both stage and screen versions (I like Miller's _Salesman_ well enough, but for my money, this is the great American tragedy)

Stephen King: "The Last Rung on the Ladder," "The Woman in the Room," _Hearts in Atlantis
_
John D. MacDonald: "End of the Tiger"

Fred Gipson: _Old Yeller_ (I can't possibly be alone on this one...)

Don Robertson: _Praise the Human Season_, _Mystical Union_. None of Robertson's work is available in ebook formats, but he's well worth a trip to the library; if I could write a book one thousandth as good as _Mystical Union_, I could die a happy man.


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

Oh, I'll tell you another one--Dragonlance.  Chronicles.  Just loved those stupid characters way too much.

There was a short story by Paul Jennings too, "The Busker", I think I read it when I was around eight or so, it was the first time I ever finished a story and wanted to yell at the author.

The sadder James Herriot stories always got me too.


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## Marie S (May 20, 2011)

Books about animals make me cry, and I've read so many, especially about cats. Also, after losing my dad in 2010 I read a lot of angel and afterlife books and they made me cry. The most recent I read was Call Me When You Get To Heaven by Jacky Newcomb and Madeline Richardson. Really heartwarming and inspiring, and so close to home for me.


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## 31842 (Jan 11, 2011)

Mark another one down for WEEPING at the end of Marley & Me and Harry Potter.  Like, snot bubble sobbing.  The other one?  Bridges of Madison County.  DON'T YOU JUDGE ME!


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## Carolyn62 (Sep 5, 2011)

Don't even mention "Ole Yeller". It was the first book that made me cry. Bambi was mild in comparison and I absolutely refuse to see the movie. I can't believe either of those stories are considered children's books. Yes I do have strong feelings about it, but I was just a child!!!!!!!!


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## Adele Ward (Jan 2, 2012)

The Remains of the Day by Ishiguro because the narrator is so alone and trying to find ways to become sociable. Regeneration Trilogy by Pat Barker when they are fighting in the bunkers.


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## Neil Ostroff (Mar 25, 2011)

I never read the full Marley and Me but flipped through it at a bookstore. I read the scene where Marley dies and walked out of the store with tears in my eyes.


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## Cege Smith (Dec 11, 2011)

The Dark Tower VII.  I am STILL distraught about how that ended.  I was just way too attached to the characters, and when it ended, especially in a way that I didn't like, it was heartbreaking.


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## N. Gemini Sasson (Jul 5, 2010)

The Art of Racing in the Rain
A Dog's Purpose
The Five People You Meet in Heaven (even though I'd just seen the movie and knew what was coming)


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

I believe the last book was 11/22/63. I went into an ugly cry at one point.

Of the indie books around these parts, Flaming Dove: The Demon Angel.

When I was a teen, I had to take a day off school because of my reaction to Gone with the Wind.


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## Lyndl (Apr 2, 2010)

Tailchaser's Song 
Watership Down
Little Women


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## Beatriz (Feb 22, 2011)

Neil Ostroff said:


> I never read the full Marley and Me but flipped through it at a bookstore. I read the scene where Marley dies and walked out of the store with tears in my eyes.


I think everybody cried with that book.


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## Steverino (Jan 5, 2011)

Back in the day, _One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest_.


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## Rick Gualtieri (Oct 31, 2011)

"Hah! Tears?  What are those?" he asks in a manly voice.  

But I might admit to getting a little misty eyed at "The Golden Sky" by EC Stilson.


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## JEV (Jan 7, 2012)

To Kill A Mockingbird.  When Scout imagines the parts of her life visible to Boo through his window.  Also, for some reason, Age of Innocence always makes me choke up.


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## djgross (May 24, 2011)

Marley and Me. I cried twice - when I read the book and then when I read the middle grade version to one of my kids.

Read this last week. A spectacular read - I think I went through an entire box of tissues.


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## Anjasa (Feb 4, 2012)

Bethany B. said:


> _Where the Red Fern Grows_. I cried like a baby.


Me too!

Though I'm just a huge sucker anyways. I cry all the time.

There's hardly a book I read that has a death in it, or two lovers parting that doesn't break my heart. Lovers and friends fighting and breaking up? Wrenches me.


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## Iain Manson (Apr 3, 2011)

I'm a big boy, and I don't blub.

And I've got news for everyone who has contributed to this thread. You've been weeping over a pack of lies. All these stories that have you sobbing your hearts out, they're inventions. I'm sorry you've been made to suffer. I'd have the authors charged with misrepresentation... or something.

But here's a true story that might, for those so inclined, give the lacrimal glands a bit of exercise. *Testament of Youth, by Vera Brittain*, is a first-hand account of what a young Englishwoman went through in the First World War. Her experiences (no spoilers) in a conflict which she had first seen as glorious persuaded her that no war could ever be justified, not even the one against Hitler.

It's an extraordinarily powerful condemnation of war.


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## Tamara Rose Blodgett (Apr 1, 2011)

_A Dog's Purpose_...


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## Anjasa (Feb 4, 2012)

Just finished Tangled Webs by Elaine Cunningham, a Forgotten Realms novel.

Yep, cried at that.


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## Jeff Shelby (Oct 2, 2011)

Anything Pat Conroy writes.


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## Ben White (Feb 11, 2011)

If we're talking about war stories, then gorramn Grave Of The Fireflies.


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## thwaters (Dec 12, 2011)

NogDog said:


> It's predictable, I suppose: _Marley & Me_ by John Grogan.


I never got around to reading Marley & Me because I saw the movie first and that was bad enough. I went with a friend and didn't expect to cry, but when they showed that scene at the end with Owen Wilson at the vet's office for the last time to do you know what - that was the end of the line for me. I didn't even have any frickin' Kleenex. Oh! Embarrassing. I was really upset that they put that in the movie anyway -- I've already been through that whole nightmare process in real life several times. Why would I want to relive it in a movie

There are many books that have made me cry -- fo sho -- but the first one to do it was "A Falling Star: A True Story of Romance" by Betty Leslie-Melville (don't be fooled by the title -- it's not as sappy as it sounds). It's a beautiful story based on true events and is set in Africa. It had the perfect blend of ingredients for me to lose myself in those words at that particular time in my life. Very touching & wonderful tale. If you have a sentimental heart & also love animals, I would highly recommend.

Cheers! Tera


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## balaspa (Dec 27, 2009)

The last book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series.  I cried a few times.


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## Beth Dolgner (Nov 11, 2011)

balaspa said:


> The last book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series. I cried a few times.


I'm glad I'm not the only one who has cried over a Stephen King novel. The Stand made me sob because my favorite character died.

Harry Potter has made me cry a lot, but nothing is worse than Little Women. Beth's illness...oh, my gosh, we even have the same name, and I always cry so hard.


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## Zombie Kevin (Feb 18, 2012)

The ones I can remember:

The Call of the Wild
Bridge to Terabithia
The Catcher in the Rye (the end, with Phoebe)


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## MichelleR (Feb 21, 2009)

thwaters said:


> I never got around to reading Marley & Me because I saw the movie first and that was bad enough. I went with a friend and didn't expect to cry, but when they showed that scene at the end with Owen Wilson at the vet's office for the last time to do you know what - that was the end of the line for me. I didn't even have any frickin' Kleenex. Oh! Embarrassing. I was really upset that they put that in the movie anyway -- I've already been through that whole nightmare process in real life several times. Why would I want to relive it in a movie
> 
> Cheers! Tera


For some people, it's cathartic. I will say that I understand your point. Working in an animal shelter rather eliminated any interest in seeing the Animal Cops shows, even the one set at the place where I worked. It then occurred to me that obviously the people not living with it got something out of seeing these shows, or there'd be major holes in the Animal Planet line-up.

And, now, years later, I can watch the shows that only gloss over the worst stuff, like Pitbulls and Parolees and Pit Boss. I suppose I like them because they both cover a very misunderstood breed.

But, this is off-topic.

I do, in general, avoid sad animal deaths in my entertainment -- have not seen Marley and Me, read the first chapter of The Art of Racing in the Rain, knew I was done.


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## RachelleVaughn (Jan 20, 2012)

Pretty much anything by Nicholas Sparks


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## KathyLynnHarris (Feb 2, 2012)

Oh yeah. Marley & Me ... I think I actually sobbed. Dang dogs. They get me every time.



NogDog said:


> It's predictable, I suppose: _Marley & Me_ by John Grogan.


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## B.A. Spangler (Jan 25, 2012)

Yeah gotta be Marley and Me ... wait that was the movie    Still cried like a baby – all three times I watched it.


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## Ms T (Nov 19, 2011)

Acheron by Sherrilyn Kenyon. Even though I re-read all of my books I can't read certain parts of this one because they just break my heart all over again.


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## katbird1 (Dec 10, 2008)

MichelleR said:


> I believe the last book was 11/22/63. I went into an ugly cry at one point.
> 
> You aren't alone. I finished listening to this yesterday and was very glad I was alone! Actually wanted to start from the beginning again, but will wait a while.


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## Ergodic Mage (Jan 23, 2012)

_Beren and Lúthien_ in _The Silmarillion_.

"Farewell sweet earth and northern sky,
for ever blest, since here did lie"

"This doom she chose..."


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## SeanBlack (May 13, 2010)

Tough Scottish thriller writers don't cry!

Oh okay, I confess, Marley and Me totally got me too. Had to lock myself away in my office while I finished that book.


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## teedra68 (Feb 26, 2012)

Les misérables by Victor Hugo


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