I also cry at too many books to mention (girl, blouse, and all that), but jjimm’s mention of Watership Down reminded me of my encounter with The Plague Dogs when I was about 12. To this day I haven’t finished it because the description of the poor dogs’ headaches continually drives me to bawl my eyes out.
Also: Fool’s Fate (the 3rd part of the Tawny Man Trilogy, of the Fitz universe by Robin Hobb) totally got to me. I stayed up until 4 am reading it, and I started crying around midnight or so. The next morning I was completely exhausted and had nobody to talk to about the book - and it’s basically the 6th huge tome in a series so you can’t really tell your friends to go read it immediately.
I cried at The Lost Boys when the family came to the awful realization about the true fate of their son, and when all the “lost boys” got a chance to hear about Christmas and see their families one last time.
The last few chapters of Guy Kay’s The Darkest Road always make me weep; every time I read them it feels like a blow to the heart. His latest book, Ysabel, had a few moments when I watered up, too, but this time I never quite spilled over.
Yet another mention of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, except I started crying around the time Hedwig and Mad-Eye Moody died and, since I read it in one sitting, was completely cried out by the time I got to “The Prince’s Tale.”
I jettisoned most of my Lackey collection a while ago, but I kept the Last Herald-Mage trilogy, and I still go straight for this book whenever I need a good cry. The other one that will make me sob, guaranteed, is Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield.
I cry pretty easy, really, and yet did not cry for any of the Harry Potter books–on first reading. I went back and read Deathly Hallows for a second time a few days after the release and my marathon speed-readthrough, and pretty much spent the entire damn book crying my eyes out.
He’s my favorite writer. Dude’s a fucking poet. I started this book a while back and then got hung up with work, so I’ll need to start over. ESPECIALLY now that I know it’s cry-worthy.
If you want to talk about children’s Picture books that make me tear up: Dogger. by shirley hughes. Bella’s gesture to her younger brother gets me every time. The Rain Babies
There is an award winning children’s picture book that I forget the title too, but it is a tale about a fireman and his bravery. It was based on a folk legend, IIRC. It was released maybe the year follwing after 9/11 and I have to tell you, I bawled my eyes out reading it too my kids.