Is it wrong that the only book to ever make me cry proper real tears . . .

Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry anyone? When you realise that TJ is going to be hanged. I need to reread it for work but almost don't want to cos its so sad (but fantastic).

Also the Dicey Tillerman books when Dicey's mother is dying and she goes to buy a box to put her ashes in.

I remember crying in the school library over Cry the Beloved Country and not being able to stop.

Just found this thread and would like to add my favourite tear jerkers.

Agree with many of the above (Little Women, Anne of Green Gables, Harry Potter).

Has anyone read Love Life by Ray Kluun? Even DH shed tears, and he never cries over a book.

I'd also like to mention Wuthering Heights and Captain Corelli's Mandolin. I love a good doomed love story.

I am sure I have cried over many books but the two that most come to mind are both biographies / autobiographies. They are 'Stuart - a life backwards' by Alexander Masters.(About his friendship with a homeless man)
www.amazon.co.uk/Stuart-Life-Backwards-Alexander-Masters/dp/0007200374/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341922945&sr=1-1
and 'Empty Chairs' & 'Faint Echoes of Laughter' by Stacey Danson.
www.amazon.co.uk/Empty-Chairs-Stacey-Danson/dp/1453858520/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1341922834&sr=1-2
Both of these caused me to finish them in floods of tears, embarrassing when you are sitting in the local library

I cry pretty routinely at fiction. But, Cat on the Hill (Michael Foreman), anyone? And, obviously, the death of Dobby in The Deathly Hallows. And the death of Jo the crossing sweeper in Bleak House.

Personally the most powerful book I have ever read - tears plus - is a book by David Howarth that apparently every Norwegian knows called 'To Die Alone' about one man's survival ordeal after a WW2 secret assignment goes terribly wrong - appalling but an emotional rollercoaster!

For me it was the very last page of Watership Down - I could not believe as a child that the book ended with the death of the main character.

BB yes and now I have horses and adore them - they really do have the most complex personalities and relate to us humans in a miraculous way (but they adore hunting as it is playing together Anna S was wrong about that!)
But DD says 'The Running Foxes' by the great Joyce Stranger - I was reading it to her so she must have been very young and tears started pouring down her cheeks at the bit where the man is trying to get his terrier out of the badger hole and it crawls to him and dies in his arms (Sleepless in Seattle moment here) DD got quite angry and upset when I pointed out that she was crying because of the sad story as she couldn't grasp that logic (she has hardly ever cried about anything so it was unusual!)

I had a treasured copy of Black Beauty with wrinkled pages from the amount of tears which had been shed over them, especially when Ginger dies. I cry every time I read it or see it on screen

Bright eyes makes me cry just hearing the intro bars, can't read or watch Watership Down in any shape or form! YY to Herriot, just so beatifully written I think, it gets right to the core of you

The latest sobbing my heart out moment was on a beach in Ireland on holiday reading "chosen by a horse".. Good job it was deserted except for DP and me

Definately an animal related list!

Anything by Joyce Stranger especially A dog called Gerlert I never finished it from crying too much on the train it was sooo embar.......blub blub

Oh yes- goodnight mister Tom (just about of it) and Anne of green gables (Mathew dying) have always caused wracking sobs.

The first book I remember sobbing over was one about a chocolate brown Labrador guide dog. I think it was a true story and there may have been more than one book but I have a clear memory of sitting on the stairs aged about 10 bawling my eyes out.

Yy to Harry's family coming out of the stone- cried myself sick at that after racing through the book as soon as it came out.

Goodnight mob

'daddy, my daddy'

I cry at most things though. Am very embarrassing cinema companion

Paula by Isabel Allende ... at Rome airport with lots of cool Italians. Sobbing.

I was in pieces after The Hunger Games, a total wreck! It's all just so unfair!

Sad by Micheal Rosen, not because it actually makes me sad, just because he words it so right.

I can't read The Selfish Giant out loud, my voice cracks.

The story of Gelert too, it's part of a guided reading scheme at school. Word has got round that Mrs Shockers always cries when it's being read, so I find children studying my face for tears rather than concentrating on the book!

Ah, the selfish giant! Makes me cry just thinking about it.

I have never read the end in a non strangled voice. Such beautiful illustrations too, in our copy anyway.

Well have just welled up at that excerpt from Watership Down although dont think it made me cry at the time - I was a hard child! Since I've had a baby though its all changed and the stupidest thing will bring tears to my eyes!!

The Little Prince though was one that would do that even before

Oh, lordy saintmerryweather, I remember that bit in James Herriot. I sobbed

In fact, there was lots of stuff in JH that made me cry.

And the ending of The Mousehole Cat. The first time I read it to the dcs
( without reading it through first. Big mistake. ) Great shuddering sobs and little voices, all concerned - "What's wrong, Mummy?" And when I tried to explain they just looked at me like I was really insane.

the bit in harry potter when harry is going to die and hes so brave but cant say goodbye to anyone....then hagrid has to carry him and everyone sees him dead...and fred dying....sob!
james herriott too with thd little dog with mange that he keeps in a stable to try and treat, and when he goes to put her to sleep shes all happy to see him.....im welling up just thinking about it!

YY, Beth in Little Women, Hazel in Watership Down, all the sad bits in Harry Potter (especially the bit where Dumbledore talks about Cedric).

But I also SOB reading The Time Traveler's Wife - because they know what's going to happen, and it's so sad. Full on snotty bed-shaking sobs. It wakes DH up.

Bridges of Madison County, same with the film; the bit when he's in front of her at the traffic lights. Dear God, gets me every time.

Oh and Goodbye Mog :(

Goodnight Beautiful by Dorothy Koonsom (adult fiction-sobbed and sobbed!)
Sister by Rosamund Lupton (adult fiction-sobbed!)
No matter what-childrens book by Debi Gliori-couldnt read it to LO without filling up!!
Butterfly Lion by Michael Morpurgo

Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant. And Dogger.

To kill a mockingbird-the line about how scout escorted boo radley home and never saw her neighbour again-gets me every time!!

Also agree with when matthew dies in Anne of Green Gables-or beth in little women.

And children of the oregon trail-our teacher read this aloud to the class when we were about 9 years of age and I hated it because I found it so harrowing.

Ditto The silver Sword

LadyBeagleEyes, my son is the same - he won't even look at Goodbye Mog. I cried all over the bookshop when I bought it - local one thank goodness where they know I'm not a total loon. Can't quite make it through Peepo without a sniffle either.

The end of Gilead by Marilynne Robinson made me sob - don't quite know why. Just something about the elegiac quality of the writing that's really moving. Ditto the bit in The Hare with the Amber Eyes when the family have escaped from Nazi controlled Europe to the UK and the father of the family still has his bookcase key in his pocket.

It's good and cathartic stuff though, often, isn't it? Sometimes when I'm feeling low for no reason I actually read the upsetting bits of things - sort of gives you permission to feel sad.

grr, this thread prompted me to re-read Black Beauty and I have just been crying big fat tears all over 3 week old DD whilst she feeds.