Books that make you cry

[lilyevans]

I love books, but only two have ever made me cry - A little princess , and Harry potter and the deathly hallows. Feel like having a good weep, what do you recommend?

God of small things. I cry thinking about it. So beautifully written and so sad.

My sure-fire weepy is Louisa May Alcott's Good Wives (= the second half of Little Women as it is in American editions; that confused the heck out of me in transatlantic conversations until I realised that what they have as one book we divide into two books.)

The Mill on the Floss had me bawling tears of both sadness and frustration.

Dogger, by Shirley Hughes, and A Friend For Little Bear have both had me weeping on occasion. I blame sleep deprivation.

My sister was left crying in a bookshop once, having casually picked up Goodbye Mog.

Love Life by Ray kluun. Sobbed throughout the last half.
Did anyone ever read a young adult book called red sky in the morning? Brilliant book about a girl with a little brother who is disabled. A proper tearjerker.

The lovely bones - my favourite book - have read it so many times but the first three times could not read it in public as I cried so much ....

The Time Traveler's Wife. I was blubbing in the corner of baggage claim at Heathrow finishing that one off.

The mill on the floss definitely 26 miles beat me to it.

Tess of the d'Urbevilles
The Hand That First Held Mine - Maggie O'Farrell
The Photograph - Penelope Lively

Plus several already mentioned (Love Life, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Khaled Hosseini)

The Light Between Oceans By M L Stedman. My chest ached throughout

The Book Thief - the only book I've cried at second time round as much as the first.

All the previous posters who said me before you by jojo moyes. I sobbed too.

Yes to Me before you and After you'd gone.

Can't read The Lovely Bones as not sure could cope emotionally with it.

After You'd Gone
The Universe Versus Alex Woods
The Book Thief (this one most of all)

The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. Much better than the film. My copies had wavy watered damaged pages due to the amount of tears.

The fault in our stars, the only book to have made me cry

Goodbye Mr Chips - DP said he'd shed a tear reading it in a pub (and he NEVER cries), so I gave it a go and was sobbing at the end...

I recognise several mentioned already, but my absolute bestest good cry novel is a kids-but-good-for-adults-too book called Goodnight Mr Tom by Michelle Magorian. I must have read it a hundred times, love it! Sad and lovely, with a mix of characters. Though reading it recently I thought Will's achievements get laid on a bit thick at the end... Otherwise perfect.

I also HAVE to cry when Heidi is reunited with Peter's Granny, not sure why as it's a happy bit but have also read this tons of times and cry every time at this bit!

Requiem For A Wren and On The Beach by Neville Shute.

The Submission by Amy Waldman and The Good Father by Noah Hawley both had me howling.

Recently I cried at one particular chapter of The Narrow Road to the Deep North by Richard Flanagan. The book is sad, moving and brutal so why this one almost innocuous chapter had me crying on a packed commuter train into Waterloo is very strange. I recommend the book though - it's very very good.

My son loves the Mog books, I'm pretending Goodbye Mog doesn't exist

Will have to read the Mill on the Floss, when I'm feeling up to it I guess.

Yy Heidi - I think I cried at lots of bits of that; coming 'home' to her Granddad, Clara walking...

"Daddy, my Daddy!" in The Railway Children makes me feel very choked. I can hear Jenny Agutter's voice from the film each time I read it.

Not so much Goodbye, Mog for me, but Mog and Bunny; the scene where Mog sits out in the cold and rain so that Bunny (who is trapped under a clothes-pole) won't be alone. That's love ..

And also Earth and Heaven by Sue Gee; a terribly sad, sensitively underplayed conversation following the death of a child. She is a writer who deserves to be far more widely known.

Oh highland - just welling up at the thought of that scene in The Railway Children

The ending of Tees of the d'Urbervilles makes me sob too.

Tess

A Prayer for Owen Meany
A thousand splendid sons
Jane Eyre
Tess of the D'Urbervilles
Captain Corelli's Mandolin
Anne of Green Gables

Just remembered also....

Goodnight Mister Tom

That book makes me sob like a baby!