# Books that made you cry **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 15, 2012, 1:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737 "2012-10-15T01:17:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wallenstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b5a626/32.png) [@Wallenstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wallenstein)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/21 "2012-10-15T12:30:32Z")
Last part of The House at Pooh Corner hits me right in the feels, makes me tear up everytime I read it with my daughter. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/22 "2012-10-15T15:21:22Z")
The only one I can recall was some book about a horse that I read as a child. The horse dies at the end. I was sitting on the living room floor crying and my mother said “Did the horse die?” I thought she was the smartest person in the world at that point. Otherwise, nah. ---
**Author:** ![JuliaSqueezer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/82dd89/32.png) [@JuliaSqueezer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JuliaSqueezer)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/23 "2012-10-15T15:32:11Z")
Saw the thread title and came in to post “Art of Racing in the Rain” but I see Catnoe beat me to it. I’m pretty stoic when it comes to tearing up, especially when reading something, but that book had me in a puddle of tears. Knew it was coming, cried anyway. ---
**Author:** ![destineal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@destineal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/destineal)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/24 "2012-10-15T15:40:36Z")
The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams is the saddest book ever written. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/25 "2012-10-15T16:21:32Z")
_Stone Fox_ is another kid’s book that does it to me. It’s just awfully sad. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Tehanu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee7513/32.png) [@Tehanu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tehanu)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/26 "2012-10-15T16:32:34Z")
“Never Let Me Go” by Kazuo Ishiguro. ---
**Author:** ![Clarisse\_McClellan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@Clarisse\_McClellan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clarisse_McClellan)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 4:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/27 "2012-10-15T16:36:49Z")
> [@Indygrrl](#): > > The Road, by Cormac McCarthy +infinity. I cried harder reading The Road than I’ve ever cried at any form of entertainment. I Heard The Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven Watership Down by Richard Adams ---
**Author:** ![Ellen\_Cherry](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellen_cherry/32/3600_2.png) [@Ellen\_Cherry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ellen_Cherry)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/28 "2012-10-15T18:16:09Z")
_Anne of Green Gables_, near the end. I’ve read it a number of times over the years without incident, but re-read it yesterday when I downloaded it for free. Geez! Maybe it’s my age but and I’ve gone all nostalgic, but I had great drippy tears at the one part; you know it if you’ve read it! ---
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/29 "2012-10-15T23:27:13Z")
Not a flat out cry, but good and choked up ( ahem…lump in my throat, No, I’m not crying…) at the end of 11/22/63 by Stephen King. ---
**Author:** ![Glory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7cd45c/32.png) [@Glory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Glory)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2012, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/30 "2012-10-15T23:36:40Z")
[Year of Wonders](http://www.amazon.com/Year-Wonders-Plague-Geraldine-Brooks/dp/0142001430/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1350344158&sr=1-1&keywords=year+of+wonders) - flat out, ugly cry, on a plane, no less. ---
**Author:** ![Tara57](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@Tara57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tara57)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/31 "2012-10-16T00:07:13Z")
Angela’s Ashes – just let me die > **[Angela's Ashes](https://books.google.com/books?id=hG4-QGmD_84C&pg=PA342&lpg=PA342&dq=angelas%2Bashes%2Bst%2Bfrances%2Bhe%2Bdoesn%27t%2Bhelp%2Bme%2B)** > > A Pulitzer Prize–winning, #1 New York Times bestseller, Angela’s Ashes is Frank McCourt’s masterful memoir of his childhood in Ireland.“When I look back on my childhood I wonder how I managed to survive at all. It was, of course, a miserable... I can’t tell, Father, I can’t. But you could tell St. Frances, couldn’t you? He doesn’t help me anymore. ---
**Author:** ![Baker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bb73d2/32.png) [@Baker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baker)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/32 "2012-10-16T00:22:20Z")
Can I please put in a short story? _The Man Who Traveled in Elephants_, by Robert A. Heinlein. I don’t cry at the big reveal at the end, but at the description of the veterans passing in review. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Girlfriend](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.girlfriend/32/193_2.png) [@Dr.Girlfriend](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Girlfriend)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/33 "2012-10-16T01:26:31Z")
The end of _The Gargoyle_, by Andrew Davidson. I was getting pissed off at the book until the last couple pages. Shouldn’t have read the end of that book at work, I had to explain to my co-workers why I was crying… ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/34 "2012-10-16T03:36:30Z")
**Wild Seed** by Octavia Butler, but they were tears of joy, actually. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/35 "2012-10-16T04:08:03Z")
The first book to ever make me actually cry was the last pages of _The Grapes of Wrath._ There are some that have made me tear up. I could barely see thru the tears at the ending of _The Road._ I was despondent for days. ---
**Author:** ![drbhoneydew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d78d45/32.png) [@drbhoneydew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drbhoneydew)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/36 "2012-10-16T12:59:17Z")
High emotion discussed matter-of-factly is the key to my sluice gates. _Stone in a Landslide_ by Maria Barbal _The Dark Room_ by Rachel Seiffert - the middle story of the three usually finds me doing the finger across the top of the cheek routine at several points. Books get me more than films, but radio plays are by far the worst. I welled up a bit when I read _The Snow Goose_, but the radio version had me nigh inconsolable for a while. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/37 "2012-10-16T13:35:36Z")
Some books have made me cry, but only two books have ever made me weep. 1. The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan. It was about how the protagonist seeks to understand the intense, conflicted relationship with her mother in terms of her mother’s past experiences. I had a very troubled relationship with my mother and the book not only made me see the situation from a new angle, it really triggered that vulnerable little kid feeling so many of us still get from time to time. 2. Maus by Art Spiegelman. A sensitive graphic novel about the Holocaust. It won a special Pullitzer Prize and now I know why. I didn’t cry while I was reading it, but I didn’t put it down. As soon as I finished -at 3am- I closed the book and just wept. For a long time. In that moment he made the Holocaust into something that was not a Jewish experience, but a human experience. I felt like I was weeping for all of humanity. And he did it all with cute little animals. ---
**Author:** ![Dave\_Hartwick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@Dave\_Hartwick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave_Hartwick)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/38 "2012-10-16T13:40:54Z")
_The Internet is a Playground_. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/39 "2012-10-16T13:53:27Z")
> [@iftheresaway](#): > > \*The Last Battle: one of the first books I remember crying at the end of. Not just because of the events of the book, but because I knew it was Over and there was no more to read. Kind of like having friends move far away when you’re a kid in the pre-internet age. You’ll always have your memories, but you’ll never know what else happens to them. Couldn’t have said it better. I’ll add The Velveteen Rabbit - I was 6, gimme a break 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [October 16, 2012, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737/40 "2012-10-16T13:59:14Z")
**Old Yeller** , many years ago. Today? **Horton Hatches The Egg**. Don’t judge me. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/books-that-made-you-cry/637737.md?page=3)