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s/o What books make you cry?


shanvan
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I cry much more easily than I used to.  The worst part for me is when I cry during read alouds.  Today I was reading chapter 1 of Helen Keller's The Story of My Life and got choked up over a few sections.  

 

Books that made us cry in the recent past.  The end of A Tale of Two Cities (Dd nearly cried her eyes out) and David Copperfield when he is thinking about seeing his mother for the last time holding up her baby as David is being carted back to school.  We were on a Dickens kick for a while.

 

I know there are more, but I can't think of them at the moment.

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OMG, Tale of Two Cities just does me in every time!!!

 

The Good Earth, when Olan dies

 

Where the Red Fern Grows (I can't even talk about it!)

Weelll...The Good Earth was on my list for later this year.  No fair putting in spoilers!   I'm going to forget all about it anyway since everything seems to leak out of my brain these days.

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I cry over everything. 

Orphan stories are too much for me. That rules out a lot.

The Lightening Thief shouldn't have made me cry, but it did.

The Hunger Games. I put it off for a long time because I knew it would be a sob fest. Sure enough. 

I can barely get through read aloud because every poignant moment makes me choke up. It's a little ridiculous, honestly.

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Weelll...The Good Earth was on my list for later this year.  No fair putting in spoilers!   I'm going to forget all about it anyway since everything seems to leak out of my brain these days.

 

OMG, I'm so sorry!  It didn't occur to me that people wouldn't know.  Don't let it stop you from reading the book.  It is my all time favorite book and I read it about every other year or so.  I cry every freaking time I read it.  It is such a good book.

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OMG, I'm so sorry!  It didn't occur to me that people wouldn't know.  Don't let it stop you from reading the book.  It is my all time favorite book and I read it about every other year or so.  I cry every freaking time I read it.  It is such a good book.

It's fine.  I probably will forget and it definitely won't stop me from reading it.   :001_smile: 

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The final chapter of A Friendly Persuasion by Jessamyn West, "Homer and the Lilies." First book that EVER made me cry. I was about 14, and to this day, I can tell you where I was when I read that chapter.

And the read-aloud for Winter Promise about the Indian boy who died of smallpox, when they are saying the oldest sister's friend, who died in the same epidemic, can carry him to the next world because he is too little to walk himself. Tearing up just typing this out.

I cry much more after having children than I ever did pre-kids. The little suckers have just made me into a pile of emotional goo, and I used to be super tough. Why is that?

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Little Women - We had been listening to the audio in the van, but  I had to find out what happened, so after everyone was in bed I found a copy and stayed up reading.  I didn't know what was going to happen to Beth and I cried and cried.

 

Island of the Blue Dolphins

 

The Christmas Doll

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Hello, Goodbye by Aliki was a tough one. The picture of people sadly saying goodbye in an airport is bad enough. But there's one page that reads something like, "Goodbyes that last forever are the hardest of all." And there's a picture of an empty wheelchair in a garden. Oy.

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The end of The Screwtape Letters makes me cry every time.   Oh, and if we are adding in parts of the Bible, when Mary speaks to Jesus in the garden after his death & resurrection and she doesn't recognize him at first?  I can not get through that one without full on sobbing.  Looking forward to the Easter lesson in a few weeks.

 

Kids' chapter books:

Little Women

Where the Red Fern Grows

Various parts of Harry Potter & the Lord of the Rings

We didn't Mean To Go To Sea- when Susan realizes what is happening and panics.  I can't help but panic along with her.

 

Kid Picture Books:

I Love You As Much

 

Amber in SJ

 

 

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The Chestry Oak. I cry like a baby in every.single.chapter, from beginning to end.

 

Hurry Home, Candy. I cry the ugly cry at the end (happy ending).

 

There's one place in The Little White Horse that makes me cry.

 

And Understood Betsy. ::happy sigh::

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Many books, esp. any with animals. My dc had to learn to read early as there was no way I could make it through out-loud readings of things like Charlotte's Web, Black Beauty, The Call of the Wild, etc.... Plus, lots of Christmas picture books that pull at your heartstrings (The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey comes to mind here....)

 

As for books I've read on my own, I bawled through the last 30 minutes or so of The Book Thief. Truman Capote's A Christmas Memory also gets me every time.

 

There are many more. I actually try to curate my reading so that I'm not out reading somewhere (train, plane, other public place) when reading something that will make me cry.

 

I hate crying (for books or movies) because it gives me a screaming headache for hours. (No, it's not cathartic at all for me, just physically painful.) So, mostly, I try to avoid books & movies that I think will do that to me.... :tongue_smilie:

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It doesn't help that I've been pregnant for years and years, so emotions are always high, but:

 

City Dog, Country Frog by Mo Willems - cry every time

 

We finished Charlotte's Web earlier this year - so much ugly crying, for the last few chapters. Just when you think you're done - bam! something else makes you tear up.

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"The remains of the day"  Kazuo Ishiguro. 

 

"Kite Runner" Khalid Hosseini

 

"The miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane"  Kate Dicamillo. Need a box of Kleenex nearby when I read this one.

 

"Grapes of Wrath" John Steinbeck.

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Germinal by Zola.  I was complete wreck reading that.  The mine collapse.  Bataille. Oh... I can't even think about it.

 

And, Love You Forever by Robert Munsch.  Someone gave that to me when ds was born.  I hadn't ever heard of it.  I cried seriously ugly trying to read that to him the first time. 

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Oh gosh. The first time I read The Book Thief, I cried through the entire last 100 pages. Then when I finished it, I aimlessly walked around the house weeping for two hours. Luckily I was home by myself. But... then my MIL dropped by unexpectedly and I had to answer the door with a swollen face. I'm sure she thought I had lost it.

I'm reading Little Women aloud to my girls right now. I hope I can stay strong. There will be a group sobfest if I can't hold it together.

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And the read-aloud for Winter Promise about the Indian boy who died of smallpox, when they are saying the oldest sister's friend, who died in the same epidemic, can carry him to the next world because he is too little to walk himself. Tearing up just typing this out.


DS and I were both sobbing away at that one. I don't think I'd have done that one as a read-aloud if I'd known.
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I specifically avoid tear jerkers. For some reason I'm better at watching movies that make me cry than I am at books that do so. There are still parts of books that make me cry though. Too many to list, but a few are

 

The Book Thief - near the end

 

Various parts of the Harry Potter books, but especially Molly Weasley's boggart in the 5th book. It's such a mother thing. Also the part where Neville saves the gum wrappers his mother gives him. 

 

Memoirs of an Imaginary Friend - a recent book club read that I didn't even think I'd like

 

The Grapes of Wrath

 

Parts of O Pioneers (Willa Cather)

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A LOT of Dickens makes me cry. Once we saw an ad for a movie version of Oliver Twist. When he carried his empty bowl and said, "Please sir, can I have some more?"  I cried like a baby. My husband, having never read the book, looked at me like I was crazy. A Christmas Carol, especially when he is talking to the ghost of Christmas present and Ignorance and Want show up. The end of A Tale of Two Cities. Several places in David Copperfield.

 

The Last Battle. The ending.

 

Les Miserables.

 

 

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Bridge to Terabithia.  I am at a point where I can't read any of it without tearing up.  Yesterday my daughter was doing an exercise in a Killgallon book that involved creating a sentence based on a model sentence from Bridge to Terabithia and I teared up, even though it was just a plain, ordinary sentence that wasn't cry-worthy. :blush:

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Bridge to Terabithia.  I am at a point where I can't read any of it without tearing up.  Yesterday my daughter was doing an exercise in a Killgallon book that involved creating a sentence based on a model sentence from Bridge to Terabithia and I teared up, even though it was just a plain, ordinary sentence that wasn't cry-worthy. :blush:

 

See, that's an example of a  book I would purposely avoid. Also, The Fault in our Stars. Everyone keeps telling me to read it. Nope. No. Not gonna do it.

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I read the last chapter of A Tale of Two Cities right before DH and I were heading out the door for church. I was about 21. We were running slightly late, but I said, "I just HAVE to finish it!" And the proceeded to cry the entire drive to church. "It is a far, far better place....baaaaawl!"

I read The Velveteen Rabbit to the kids. Oh my! First, I tried to hold it in, until the muscles in my throat were contracting or something because it hurt, and then I started heaving and bawling. The kids stared at me funny and said, "You don't have to read it." But I did. We had to read it to the end.

I rarely cry in front of people, but those were two times I just couldn't stop.

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Oh, and if we are adding in parts of the Bible, when Mary speaks to Jesus in the garden after his death & resurrection and she doesn't recognize him at first?


Oh yes! That part gets me every time. He says, "Mary," and she's knows it's him. I bawl at that, too, but only when I'm alone. It would be embarrassing to bawl at church.
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I can't believe I forgot The Book Thief!  I BAWLED!  The bit near the end nearly did me end.  Those of you who have read it know what I'm talking about.

 

Has anyone seen the movie?  I was quite pleased by how relatively faithful they were to the book.  Of course there were changes, but for the most part they kept the story in tact.  When it got to the really sad bit that had made me cry so much in the book, I started tearing up.  James Bond, who has not read the book, looked over at me and said "Oh, no, this is going to be bad, isn't it?  Am I going to cry?  I'm going to cry, aren't I?"  FTR, he did cry.  I bawled.  It was awful.  In a good way.

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Hello, Goodbye by Aliki was a tough one. The picture of people sadly saying goodbye in an airport is bad enough. But there's one page that reads something like, "Goodbyes that last forever are the hardest of all." And there's a picture of an empty wheelchair in a garden. Oy.

 

Is this the book you are talking about?  

 

I like Aliki's stuff, and might snag it.

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The Chestry Oak. I cry like a baby in every.single.chapter, from beginning to end.

Hurry Home, Candy. I cry the ugly cry at the end (happy ending).

There's one place in The Little White Horse that makes me cry.

And Understood Betsy. ::happy sigh::


You just have to stop mentioning The Chestry Oak. Every time, I try to find it without success (well unless I'm willing to buy it for over $100, which I'm not! So wishing my library had it so we could finally read this highly recommended book!
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Where the Red Fern Grows (I can't even talk about it!)

 

YES!!!!  Years ago, my 3 dd's and I were sitting on the kitchen floor finishing this book as a read aloud.  I could barely speak the words through my sobbing, and my sister-in-law walked in. :huh:  What a scene--she thought something horrible had happened (IRL)!

We finished Charlotte's Web earlier this year - so much ugly crying, for the last few chapters. Just when you think you're done - bam! something else makes you tear up.

Always!

 

And.......adding Les Miserables.  Ugly cry.

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To Kill A Mockingbird
Charlotte's Web
The Help
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Shiloh
Mississippi Cotton
Quick As A Cricket--I have no idea why but it does
Barn Dance--same thing as above
Bridge to Terabithia
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The Little Match Girl
The Grapes of Wrath
A Tale of Two Cities
The Hiding Place
Cheaper by the Dozen
Homecoming
The Pinballs
Narnia books
Winnie the Pooh

Just to name a few.  I cry more after a good read than a movie.
 

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