Author Topic: Books that made me cry  (Read 12626 times)

tiermat

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Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #50 on: 03 December, 2008, 07:17:51 pm »
Only one for me
PS I Love You

Had me in floods of tears....
I feel like Captain Kirk, on a brand new planet every day, a little like King Kong on top of the Empire State

Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #51 on: 04 December, 2008, 08:15:06 am »

Lots also.

An early one was Eric Linklater's "The Wind on the Moon".

LEL

Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #52 on: 05 December, 2008, 10:35:28 am »
A Kestrel For a Knave.  Still got my copy I nicked relocated from the school library.

Lord of the Rings, final chapter.

War and peace.  Cried with sheer boredom by chapter 4.


clarion

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Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #53 on: 05 December, 2008, 10:38:55 am »
A Kestrel For a Knave.  Still got my copy I nicked relocated from the school library.

Oh gosh yes.  Terrible terrible terrible sad.  Especially where he goes to the cinema to remember his dad.


Quote
War and peace.  Cried with sheer boredom by chapter 4.

Fair call, but Resurrection and The Death of Ivan Illich both had me crying.
Getting there...

Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #54 on: 05 December, 2008, 10:41:05 am »
Bury my Heart at Wounded Knee (makes you very angry as well)

Once were warriors (Alan Duff) a story about the plight of the Maori in modern society

Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #55 on: 05 December, 2008, 10:42:20 am »
The end of Winnie the Pooh. The conversation between Christopher Robin and Pooh about going to school is heart breaking. It's about growing up and leaving behind that make believe world that little children have. You know Christopher Robin will never be able to come back. Maybe you need to have kids for this one to affect you in that way.

I've just got a big lump in my throat. I'd forgotten that.

clarion

  • Tyke
Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #56 on: 05 December, 2008, 10:42:45 am »
There was a film of Once Were Warriors.  Didn't see that, though I wanted to, but, now I know there's a book, I shall look for it.
Getting there...

Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #57 on: 05 December, 2008, 10:45:22 am »
There was a film of Once Were Warriors.  Didn't see that, though I wanted to, but, now I know there's a book, I shall look for it.

It was all right, but nothing compares to the power of a book.

αdαmsκι

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Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #58 on: 05 December, 2008, 11:49:23 am »
Testament of Youth by Vera Brittain  :'(
What on earth am I doing here on this beautiful day?! This is the only life I've got!!

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Jacomus

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Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #59 on: 05 December, 2008, 12:19:16 pm »
"My War Gone By, I Miss It So," by Anthony Loyd

Brings a lump to my throat just thinking about it.
"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity." Amelia Earhart

Julian

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Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #60 on: 05 December, 2008, 12:23:39 pm »
War books usually make me cry.  The Siege - Helen Dunmore - was the most recent one.

Legs

Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #61 on: 19 January, 2010, 10:43:34 pm »
Birds Without Wings.

Tourist Tony

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Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #62 on: 19 January, 2010, 11:24:18 pm »
"The Bells of Hell",a personal history of WWI
More than that, a book that had me shouting abuse,"The Railway Man" by Eric Lomax. He was worked nearly to death by the Japs on a Certain Railway. The Beeb managed to find the Jap who had translated as he was toutured, and he had become a Buddhist monk and set up a shrine where he had participated in evil, as atonement. The book is wonderful, but the bit where the Beeb reintroduces prisoner and reformed torturer.....insert cliches about value of TV licence
In the book, see if you can read it without hating the officers on the repatriation ship.

Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #63 on: 19 January, 2010, 11:30:06 pm »
I have Lomax' book - utterly heart-rending.

For me, perhaps Gil Courtemanche's A Sunday at the Pool in Kigali.

Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #64 on: 20 January, 2010, 10:15:49 am »
The OED in hardback.


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Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #65 on: 20 January, 2010, 12:14:05 pm »
None, but "Wilt On High" made me blow Coffee out of my nose on a train once (trying to supress a laugh in front of commuters..and failing miserably to remain inconspicuous).  Nothing like self-water-boarding using hot-coffee to attract attention .

Eccentrica Gallumbits

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Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #67 on: 05 March, 2011, 11:56:21 am »
Utvandrarna (The Emigrants) by Vilhelm Moberg.

Over a million Swedes left their home country in the nineteenth century due to failed harvests, religious intolerance and a near-feudal system of land ownership. This is the first of a tetrology and the amount and level of research is staggering. This book details why one family in particular decides to uproot to the promised land of the USA in the 1850s. The description of the conditions they endure in Sweden is riveting and utterly moving. There's a scene where the youngest daughter of the malnourished/starving family "steals" a bowl of christening porridge - all they could make given the famine - and dies from a ruptured stomach. That's the straw that breaks the camel's back & they prepare to leave.

The other three books cover their arrival, settlement and assimilation into the American Way over the following decades and the final letter home from a family friend - the only one who can still write pidgin-Swedish - to the remaining relatives in Sweden explaining that the main character has died is also a heart wrencher.

Every Swede (and almost every Swedish American) will have read the books and it truly is a classic in every sense of the word. >2000 pages though, so takes some stamina!
Haggerty F, Haggerty R, Tomkins, Noble, Carrick, Robson, Crapper, Dewhurst, Macintyre, Treadmore, Davitt.

Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #68 on: 05 March, 2011, 12:03:34 pm »
Explaining Death To The Dog by Susan Perabo.

If you have ever lost anyone dear, this short story will likely take you all the way back. If you know dogs, there is added poignancy.

It doesn't matter that much that the writer has clearly been on a US style creative writing course, I don't think. (actually, I think she takes those classes)

her_welshness

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Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #69 on: 05 March, 2011, 12:28:12 pm »
Explaining Death To The Dog by Susan Perabo.

If you have ever lost anyone dear, this short story will likely take you all the way back. If you know dogs, there is added poignancy.

It doesn't matter that much that the writer has clearly been on a US style creative writing course, I don't think. (actually, I think she takes those classes)

Its a brilliant book. I remember reading it a few months ago in the library where I was working.

The third book in the Philip Pullman trilogy, where Lyra has to part from her daemon just reduced me to a state of sobness.
Never Let Me Go - Ishiguro
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The Suspicions of Mr Whicher (Summerscale)
The Time Travellers Wife
The Map of Love

Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #70 on: 05 March, 2011, 08:43:13 pm »
Shardik by Richard Adams.

Shardik, a big mystical bear-god, saves the slave children but dies in the process.  A small slave girl also dies (one of many).  In Shardik's honour his worshippers see him off on a big floating pyre with the little girls body tucked protectively under the bears arm. 

LindaG

Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #71 on: 05 March, 2011, 08:48:34 pm »
Another one for The Kite Runner.  It made me thoughtful for, ooh, days.

And in Peter Abelard, the passage near the end with the rabbit.  Brilliant.

Black Beauty (when I was a kid).

urban_biker

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Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #72 on: 08 March, 2011, 02:33:36 pm »
When I was small I had a set of Arthur Mees encyclopedias on a shelf above my bed. One night a few copies fell off the shelf in the middle of the night and hit my head - that made me cry I can tell you.
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LindaG

Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #73 on: 08 March, 2011, 02:35:18 pm »
I have an Arthur Mee encylopedia beside me as I type.

It is on the bottom shelf.  A fascinating read.

Re: Books that made me cry
« Reply #74 on: 08 March, 2011, 03:15:58 pm »
When I was small I had a set of Arthur Mees encyclopedias on a shelf above my bed. One night a few copies fell off the shelf in the middle of the night and hit my head - that made me cry I can tell you.

As a kid, I had a bookcase above my bed with both the Children's encyclopedia and the Britannica and when I wasn't watching out  for the snakes and wild animals I always thought that it was going to drop on me, as there was no visible means of support. Good to know I was right to worry.