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Original poster

Books that made you cry?

127 replies

jamiesam · 27/07/2006 21:24

I've just re-read Birdsong and really enjoyed having a good sob. Am keen to read another weepy and looking for recommendations (ps am pg so inclined to be more emotional than normal )

OP posts:
Caligula · 27/07/2006 21:29

Persuasion by Jane Austen

mummyplonk · 27/07/2006 21:34

"The Diving Bell and the Butterfly"

true story of a man paralysed and could only blink and dictated the whole book by blinking. Amazing Book.

beansprout · 27/07/2006 21:39

The Time Traveller's Wife, which some people think is fab and others really don't like but I loved it (and I am, of course, known for my good taste)

cjmummy · 27/07/2006 22:27

its a bit cheesy but Bridges over Madison County made me have a little cry!

wrinklytum · 27/07/2006 22:41

To Kill A Mockingbird.

Tommy · 27/07/2006 22:42

The Railway Children - can't get through the scene when her daddy gets off the train.....

melrose · 27/07/2006 22:45

Time to say goodbye by ruth picardie is the most moving book I have ever read. But almost too sad to read as it is so tragic as a true story of her battle with cancer. Have re read it several times when I am feeling fed up and need to appreciate what I have in life.

wanderingstar · 27/07/2006 23:11

Birdsong.
Family Life by Elisabeth Luard.

Gillian76 · 27/07/2006 23:15

I blubbed at the end of My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. The rest of the book is OK but the ending made me and my sister cry.

cremolafoam · 27/07/2006 23:18

me too beansprout. wept many times and i loved time trav. wife. wish she'd write a sequel about Alba

kid · 27/07/2006 23:19

Hannah's gift

fattiemumma · 27/07/2006 23:20

A boy called it
The pianist ( the film cut it to shreds and missed so much)

and strangely...Bily Connelly's autobiography. he had such a difficult upbringing and yet he has so much strength of character.

flutterbee · 27/07/2006 23:22

Children of the dust makes me sob my heart out, when I read it I sometimes start crying before it gets sad just because I know what is going to happen. It is made up of three (small) parts and it is the first part that always gets me, I usually stop reading once I have finished the first part.

southeastastra · 27/07/2006 23:23

angela's ashes

chubbleigh · 27/07/2006 23:25

Well this is a bit off the wall but it was Mussolini: his part in my downfall by Spike Milligan. It is part of his war memoir, he has battle fatigue and slides into a nervous breakdown from which he never really recovers. I have read the whole series of 7 books and they are his best work.

Tortington · 28/07/2006 00:04

LOTR. i know whats gonna happen to boramir - still i weep buckets

ginmummy · 28/07/2006 00:13

The Chamber by John Grisham. I cried when they executed him, and I was on the bus to work too so I got some very strange looks.

Also, try The Green Mile by Stephen King.

twinsetandpearls · 28/07/2006 00:17

Bernice Rubens "Brothers" makes me sob out loud when I read it.

Hollyboo · 28/07/2006 00:21

Christina Noble's book, Bridge Across My Sorrows.

Original poster
jamiesam · 28/07/2006 21:08

Thanks for some great recommendations chaps.

Think I will try to find the Spike Milligan - find I am into war stories at the mo (am reading non-fiction about first world war since finishing birdsong...)

OP posts:
sissyspacek · 28/07/2006 21:12

Good night Mr Tom was the first book to really make me cry , I was about 11 I remember going down stairs and sobbing to my Mum .....

CorrieDale · 28/07/2006 21:15

Schindler's Ark. I cried in an airport.

liath · 28/07/2006 21:28

I re-read The Chrysalids by John Grisham for the first time since having dd and was weeping buckets. I've read it many times before and never cried - what has motherhood done to me????

chubbleigh · 28/07/2006 21:31

If you are going to read the Spike Milligan war memoirs you are best off starting with the first book even if you do not read all seven. The first book (Hitler: My part in his downfall) starts with the outbreak of war and his basic training. The whole thing begins really quite light-hearted and funny and gradually gets darker as the war goes on. The second book (Monty: His part in my victory)is his time in North Africa and the third is in Italy, the Mussolini one.

I have also read the Pat Barker trilogy (Regeneration, The Eye in the Door, The Ghost Road) which is good but it is also completely harrowing, there is no humour in it at all.

nearlythree · 28/07/2006 22:10

Tom's Midnight Garden. It's the bit at the end where Tom finds out that Hattie is the old lady, and seeing hjim makes her like a young girl again. And it's so good on the loneliness of childhood, and loss, and the ravages of time.