What book makes you tear-up when you think about it

Cafe Society
#1

A long the similar thread in CS of “what movies make men cry”?

What books make men cry?

Being female, the only one I know that gets a tear out of any man I know is the book " Love You Forever" by Sheila McGraw (illustrator) and Robert N. Munsch.
At the Sunday dinner with the folks and all, someone mentioned this book and my father started tearing up, He said he picked it up once to read to his 2-year-old granddaughter and could not finish it because he started crying. The rest of the table, familiar with the book, also started tearing up. We all had to shut up about it and change the subject. Men and women.

Anyone else have a similar reaction?

#2

A book has never made me tear up, that I can recall, unlike TV, movies or songs. My hypothesis is that while reading a book, I have time to telegraph or expect the tearing up, and can control it, while the other media move so quickly that I can’t stop the crying before it reaches critical tear mass.

Or sumpin’ like that.

hrh

#3

I haven’t read it, but would Flowers for Algernon fit the bill ?

#4

The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein. He’s one of my all-time favorite authors.

#5

Ummmm, definitely my checkbook.

Seriously, A Widow For One Year by John Irving. And don’t you dare cheat and read the last page before you get there, or you’ll be sorry.

#6

My Name Is Asher Lev, by Chaim Potok. I always tear up during certain passages of this book.

#7

Well, two, actually.

The Polar Express by Chris vanAllsburg. 'Nuff said.

But the ending of Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby mists me right up. I sometimes go and find a copy while shopping in bookstores just to read those last five or six paragraphs. I’m tearing up even as I write this…

#8

I’ts not a book but short story, The Man Who Travelled in Elephants from Robert Heinlein.

#9

Where the Red Fern Grows. Don’t care that the last time I read it was in fourth grade. That’s the only book to date that I can think of. Can only think of one movie, too. (See the parallel thread about movies for that one.) Can’t think of anything on TV…Can think of plenty of songs, though. Songs not only can have sad lyrics, but the music and the sound of the voice can be just as sad, too. Is there a “Songs that make you cry” thread yet? :wink:

#10

Charlotte’s Web.

#11

A Farewell to Arms and For Whom the Bell Tolls by Hemingway.

And The Cider House Rules by John Irving.

#12

Crime and Punishment What an ending!

#13

The very end of T.H. White’s The Once and Future King*. I’m a big ol’ mess.

#14

Short story by Ray Bradbury: “All Summer in a Day.”

#15

A speech by Father Zossima in The Brothers Karamazov made me cry.

And I cried while reading Mark Helprin’s wonderful A Soldier of the Great War.

Then there is The Velveteen Rabbit, Charlotte’s Web, and when I was about 9, The Song of Roland. I am proud to be a wuss.

I cry at the opera. I have cried in church while singing hymns I love. I also cried when the Giants beat the Vikings to go to the Superbowl.

#16

This is going to sound strange, but “Hearts in Atlantis” by Stephen King. It seemed to push every emotional button I have.

#17

Dragonfly in Amber. It’s not quite the end, but the part where Claire leaves Jamie.

No matter how many times I read it, I end up bawling like a baby.

There’s also a line in one of the Dragonlance books when Flint dies and Paladine comforts Tasslehoff.

sniff sniff

#18

at Wal-Mart while dawdling in the book section during my lunch break.

I had to really hold back the tears so I could get back to work!

I’m such a wuss! G

#19

I’ve been tearing up a lot lately. I didn’t know that these books had tear-jerking elements, but man, I just sobbed.

Crazy Love by David L. Martin – he writes “literary” stuff and thrillers, but this one is a love story built around an animal rights theme. So you get to cry for the people and the milk goats too.

Right after that I picked up Eva Moves the Furniture by Margot Livesey and Heart of Stone by Renate Dorrestein. These books started with sad stuff so the sad stuff that came later was unexpected.

I’d be mad at the authors if I hadn’t enjoyed these books so much.

There’s a scene in Harriett Arnow’s Dollmaker that makes me cry whenever I think of it. The first time I read it, I went upstairs and sobbed in a closet so I wouldn’t upset my family.

I haven’t read any of the other books mentioned in this thread. I’d probably love them but I gotta ask if I want to subject myself – knowingly – to stuff that’ll break my heart.

#20

Another SF short: “The Star” by Arthur C Clarke. I don’t care how often I read it, the final paragraph breaks me down.