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?

Good Wives for me too- read and read them as a child "and on the bosom where she drew her first breath, she quietly drew her last". Or words to that effect. Still makes me fill up. Also the death of Lee Scoresby in Dark Materials.

Yes Beth - cooroo that quote has got me teary out of the blue just reading it.

I love a good cry.
Last thing I read that made me cry was a book I was road-testing for my daughter, called Love Aubrey. It's about an 11 year old girl whose mother has an emotional breakdown following a family tragedy and abandons Aubrey. After surviving in the house alone for several days, the grandmother turns up and takes Aubrey home with her and the rest of the story is about how Aubrey rebuilds her life. It's simply written as it's a children's book, but it's powerful and moving.

The bridge to terabithia by Kathryn Paterson made me cry as an adult. Beautiful story of young friendship. Unexpectedly the little girl dies when their rope swing over a brook snaps - beautifully written.

Only two books have actually made me cry:

• place of greater safety-Hilary mantel - at the end when Danton and camile desmoulins (can't spell!) are in the cart on the way to the guillotine. Generally, this is easily the best historical fiction I have ever read - significantly better in its richness and character development than wolf hall. And another character-filled massive tome but completed in the pre-internet 90s. Amazing skill.

• an audio of the kite runner. I had to stop ironing, sit at the kitchen table and weep.

That's it I think.

Bridge to terabithia is a children's book - a superb book - but very sad - suitable for about age 11+

Another vote for The Light Between Oceans. It's not the sort of book I normally read but a friend recommended it. I sobbed at the end where she takes her baby back - unfortunately I was on a train at the time

"Daddy, my Daddy" in The Railway Children must be one of the most throat-catching lines ever written.

Handling the undead by john ajvide LindQvist

Cried hysterically when I finished this...I wouldn't mind but we were on the beach at Weymouth at the time

All five of us had to leave the beach and walk through the town (me still sobbing uncontrollably) to WH Smith to buy me a new book straight away so I could take my mind off it

It was very embarrassing

To kill a mockingbird - when Scout finally acknowledges Boo Radley
The memory book - led to embarrassing sobbing on a packed commuter train. Fellow passenger had to give me at tissue
Goodnight mister Tom as well

The final few chapters of His Dark Materials.

But oh god, 'Any Human Heart' just about broke mine.

And as for 'Flowers For Algernon'.....

I can't actually think about the death of Ginger in Black Beauty without crying. I try not to think about Black Beauty at all in fact. We read it in 4th class (age 8) and the struggle not to cry in class ...

oh and the scene where David Copperfield says goodbye to his mother for the last time and she is holding up the baby. Impossible to read without crying. And I hate Dickens.

Goodnight Sweetheart by Dorothy Koomson. I had to take it in the bathroom to finish it-the tears were dripping off my chin!

The Book of Lost Things by John Connolly
The Guernsey Potato Peel Pie Society
The Snow Child

often books by Julian Barnes make me weep

And sometimes just finishing a book I love and don't want to finish, makes me weep too!

The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

Letters from Constance by Mary Hocking. Was reading this just after my mum died so was feeling sad anyway but this book pretty much finished me off with the final letter "Dear Absent One. ..."

Big loud sobs (and it takes a lot for me to cry!0 at Jodi Piccoult's Leaving Time. Unexpected ending that just made me weep. Dont usually enjoy her books that much either.

Mine are a bit random -

Magic's Pawn by Mercedes Lackey, have read it lots of times, but it always reduces me to tears
The story Elsie Piddock Skips in Her Sleep from Martin Pippin in the Daisy field
The bit at the start of By the Shores of Silver Lake where Laura's dog Jack dies.

yy to The Railway Children. The DCs thought I was having some sort of episode when I got to that bit. I managed the Daddy my Daddy bit, because I'd steeled myself, but after that just collapsed with snorting sobs.

Rarely cry at adult books though. Jude the Obscure shocked me but I don't think I cried.

Panga - yes to Mockingbird. Also a Ken Kesey short story called The Day Superman Died always gets me. And Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. I cry at a lot of books actually...

Depends what kind of cry you want.

Some books make me cry in a depressed way - Book Thief, Never Let me Go etc.
Romantic cheesy sobs - The Bridges of Madison County, The Notebook, One Day.
Just finished 'We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves' which made me cry a bit too.
Children's books - "Walk Two Moons" (best kids book I've ever read), I'll love you Forever (although the ending gets a bit creepy!) and War Horse.

'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

'One Day' by by David Nicholls

A lot depends on my mood at the time though

Oh god, many, but someone upthread mentioned FLowers for Algernon. Sobbed.

Surprised no one has mentioned My Sisters Keeper. Gulp.

Agree on David Copperfield and His Dark Materials. The Road didn't make me cry, just made me really depressed!
The one thing that can always get me is the end of Watership Down - cannot read it in public!

A Tale of Two Cities