I know someone else has already mentioned Outlander, by Gabaldon, but that’s what I thought of immediately on seeing the thread title. It’s the scene a day or two after Claire and Jamie are married, and they sneak out of the inn/tavern, and creep up into the woods a bit. He is showing off with his weapons for her, almost as a dance. It’s one of those scenes I can picture very clearly when I’m reading it, and I don’t normally do that. It’s just such a wonderfully written piece of the book.
It was one of the Fletch books by Gregory McDonald. In it, Fletch is driving over a bridge and happens to catch sight of something flapping in the breeze under the bridge. It was an article of clothing worn by a woman who was about to kill herself by jumping off the bridge. In short, Fletch talked her out of it.
What he said helped me when I was in a similar frame of mind.
In Neil Gaiman’s American Gods, Mr. Wednesday and Shadow are having coffee in a diner. Wednesday stiffs the waitress for the bill and Shadow complains, telling Wednesday that she did nothing to deserve that treatment.
Wednesday recalls a moment from her childhood, where she buried her kitten in box because she “wanted to bury something.” She listened as its cries got weaker and weaker and then stopped.
Shudder
When I reread that book, I skip that passage now. The first time I read it, it upset me so much I had to find my kitty and cuddle her for a good long while.