# What books have made you cry? (Possible spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 6, 2003, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002 "2003-01-06T20:24:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![auliya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/90db22/32.png) [@auliya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auliya)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2003, 12:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/41 "2003-01-08T12:25:14Z")
**Metalhead** , I am glad I am not the only one with a tissue and a sniffle while reading LOTR. I was too embarrassed to admit it till I read your post. I also 2nd Watership Down, it was so sad. ---
**Author:** ![big\_alex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e56c9b/32.png) [@big\_alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/big_alex)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/42 "2003-01-11T19:14:22Z")
For me it would have to be “Goodnight Mister Tom”, “Grayfriars Bobby” and the part in “Heidi” where the grandfather asks for forgiveness ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/43 "2003-01-11T19:42:36Z")
I bawl _every time_ I read the following books: 1. _Bridge to Terabithia_ 2. _Where the Red Fern Grows_ 3. _Podkayne of Mars_ (with original, sad ending) 4. _Diary of a Young Girl_ (And when I get done crying, I start crying all over again, because it’s real. ☹ ) ---
**Author:** ![Skillet38](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8797f3/32.png) [@Skillet38](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skillet38)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/44 "2003-01-11T20:16:53Z")
A Prayer For Owen Meany brilliant. Also by John Irving, “The Hotel New Hampshire” ---
**Author:** ![bobblehead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e4f/32.png) [@bobblehead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobblehead)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/45 "2003-01-11T21:51:50Z")
“The Bridges of Madison County” come to mind first. I cry easily, but this book affected me for a couple of days and I couldn’t even pick up either of my two other books. “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” cause me to tear up several time. ---
**Author:** ![bobblehead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e4f/32.png) [@bobblehead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobblehead)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/46 "2003-01-11T21:53:15Z")
Some really great tear-jerking books on this thread! Wonderful thread! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/47 "2003-01-11T22:05:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by //\etalhea|) \* > Actually, **The Lord of the Rings** , at the very, very,very end at the Gray Havens. Gets me everytime. I have a theory that that parts not gonna make it into the theatrical release of the movie, but I could be wrong. Won’t be the same anyway. The book gets me everytime. I was deeply moved by the Lord of the Rings too. I felt sadness when Gandalf apparently fell, but it was still an exciting story-line, so I kept reading. I was getting the sniffles when Sam announced to Rosy that he was back; because it’s such a homely contrast to all the astounding sights he’s seen. But when I read the Appendices, and came to the part where Legolas and Gimli take ship together with the comment ‘and thus came an end to the Fellowship of the Ring in Middle Earth’, then everything welled up inside. Blub. ---
**Author:** ![Howard\_Juneau](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/bb73d2/32.png) [@Howard\_Juneau](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Howard_Juneau)\ **Post date:** [January 11, 2003, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/48 "2003-01-11T22:09:34Z")
**The Poisonwood Bible** by Barbara Kingsolver. The story of a missionary family in the Congo in 1959, and how their experience in Africa impacts their lives for the next 40 years. I would have read it in one sitting if I could have, but I had to take breaks to bawl my eyes out. Don’t miss the part about the ants. _—shudder—_:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/49 "2003-01-12T01:50:50Z")
Just finished Paul Quarrington’s _The Spirit Cabinet_, and I suppose I should have expected it. Slipped in with an apparently trivial and slap-stick story, an ending that had me practically bawling. (Couldn’t put it down after I got about half-way through it, so I ended up finishing it at almost five a.m., and sleep-deprivation undoubtedly contributed to my emotional vulnerability.) Quarrington has that gift that Vonnegut demonstrated – deceptively simple narrative, often very funny, yet profoundly human and touching. ---
**Author:** ![Rubystreak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Rubystreak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rubystreak)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 5:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/50 "2003-01-12T05:40:42Z")
“Deathbird Story”: the story within the story “Ahbhu” by Harlan Ellison, about a man whose dog dies, always makes me choke up, even when reading it to my class The Sparrow–Mary Doria Russell (I finished it at work and had to adjourn to the bathroom for a few minutes so as not to embarrass myself) Tigana–Guy Gavriel Kay The Mists of Avalon–Marion Zimmer Bradley Sandman: The Wake–Neil Gaiman I Know This Much is True–Wally Lamb ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 8:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/51 "2003-01-12T08:48:21Z")
Another one for **A Prayer For Owen Meany** ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/52 "2003-01-12T09:14:38Z")
John Irving can _always_ be counted on for a good weep. (I don’t know of any other wrestling-fixated authors that are so cussed sensitive.) I think that tomorrow I’ll pick up _Trying To Save Piggy Sneed_ again. It’s been quite a while since I read it, and I don’t remember much detail about many of the stories in it. I remember that the title story got to me in a big way, though, and I know that I got the pages damp. The movie that was vaguely based on _A Prayer For Owen Meany_ almost made me cry, too. :Scratches head: Oh yeah, _Simon Birch_. Closer to tears of rage, though. What a travesty! I remember Ken Kesey explaining himself to David Letterman about why he’d never seen the film adaptation of _One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest_. Dave asked him if he wasn’t curious at all to see how it turned out, and Kesey said something like, “Well, Dave, if you knew that someone was raping your daughter in the street, would you feel compelled to watch, just to see exactly how they did it?” I’ve never sympathized with Kesey about this, but if John Irving said the same thing with regard to the _Simon Birch_ fiasco, it would make sense to me. They pulled off some sort of Bizarro-world alchemy with that one, transforming Gold into something unspeakably foul. ---
**Author:** ![Triss](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Triss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Triss)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/53 "2003-01-12T17:27:54Z")
Off the top of my head: _The Colour Purple_ _Lord of the Rings_ _The Shining_ (When Danny thinks: “I’m only five…doesn’t it matter that I’m only five?”) ---
**Author:** ![CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crankyasanoldman/32/11670_2.png) [@CrankyAsAnOldMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrankyAsAnOldMan)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2003, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/54 "2003-01-12T18:43:05Z")
Oh yeah, “Microserfs” made me bawl. The ending was just so happily bittersweet. Hello jed. I can recall being pretty racked up over “Talk Before Sleep” by Elizabeth Berg and, for a similar reason, “The Saving Graces” by Patricia Gaffney. I’m talking bawl-your-eyes out crying. Recently, “The Lovely Bones” by Alice Sebold had me pretty messed up. It’s an excellent book. I think I might have also cried a bit at the end of “Bel Canto” even though I knew it couldn’t really end any other way. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/55 "2003-01-13T00:40:36Z")
I love you guys-- this one thread has mapped out my reading schedule for 2003 in a way that the _TLS_ could never quite manage. ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/56 "2003-01-13T04:13:00Z")
I’m a rabid bookworm, and despite all the reading I’ve done, only one book has ever succeeded in getting me to shed tears. It’s a book that has already been mentioned on this thread, but I’ll say the name again anyways. Where the Red Fern Grows, by Wilson Rawls. Read it for the first time when I was in the sixth grade, and I was a mess when I finished it. ---
**Author:** ![BadBaby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/71c47a/32.png) [@BadBaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BadBaby)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/57 "2003-01-13T04:54:07Z")
Prince of Morning Bells, by Nancy Kress. It’s been ten years since I read it and I still get choked up thinking about poor Chessie. ---
**Author:** ![Chaosisme](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Chaosisme](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chaosisme)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/58 "2003-01-13T05:11:45Z")
People of the Whistling Waters,by Mardi Oakley Medawar, story about the Crow Indian Nation… that book made me cry several time while reading it…also, Charlottes Web, I cried when I read it as a kid and cried when I read it to my daughter years later… ---
**Author:** ![SkipMagic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skipmagic/32/20706_2.png) [@SkipMagic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SkipMagic)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 5:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/59 "2003-01-13T05:36:14Z")
_A Taste of Blackberries_ by Doris Buchanan Smith. Okay. Maybe I didn’t cry, but it made me feel berry, berry sad. ☹ Oh, and _Alvin Fernald, TV Anchorman_ by Clifford B. Hicks. But only because I was, at that age, a sucker for happy endings. ---
**Author:** ![Primaflora](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Primaflora](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Primaflora)\ **Post date:** [January 13, 2003, 6:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002/60 "2003-01-13T06:10:44Z")
_Pawn in frankincense_ by Dorothy Dunnett. The chess game does me in every time [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-books-have-made-you-cry-possible-spoilers/147002.md?page=4)