It’s my party and I’ll cry if I want to…
I have a confession to make: I cry at adverts (I’m talking about ones that are about animal rescue or child abuse, not shake ‘n vac or oven chips!). It’s harder to make me cry at a book, however, but when one does make me cry it’s because the author has made me care. There are a few books that have made me wipe a tear from the corner of my eye, but only the odd one that has made me openly weep. One that almost made this post was My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I remember reading this on a sunlounger at a villa we stayed at in Gozo (an island belonging to Malta); this was the first Picoult I had read so I wasn’t familiar with her style of throwing a twist in at the end of the book at that time. What happened in the epilogue took me by such surprise that it completely threw me – I had come to care about the characters so much and I hadn’t seen the ending coming at all 😦
However, the book I have chosen is one that broke my heart when I read it. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is narrated by Death and follows a young girl in Germany in WW2 as she is sent to live with strangers: the characters in this book are genuinely endearing and when the ending hits you, it will hit you with the force of a freight train. I sobbed my heart out! We read this book for my book group years ago and every single person (bar one) loved it and most admitted to shedding a tear. I remember walking around in a daze for days afterwards as I tried to come to terms with the impact it had had on me. If you don’t so much as get a lump in your throat upon finishing this book, I’m afraid to say you just may have a heart of stone. Fact.
The Book Whisperer 
Yes indeed both The Book Thief and My Sister’s Keeper had me howling!!
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Howling is a good description! 😉
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Such a wonderful book! I loved it and I cried, but no surprise there since I’m the kind of person who can find something to shed a tear from in almost any book.
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🙂
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I totally agree about the Book Thief – a four hankies job. I don’t usually get on with this kind of borderline magic realist style but this was so beautifully written that I was swept along by it. It reminded me a little of the Tin Drum.
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The Tin Drum is on my wishlist – very curious now!
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I cried a lot with The green mile, Of mice and men and The kite runner… but like Mari, I cry very easily… sniff…
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Of Mice and Men – of course! Yep, I cried at that one too 😦
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I find Jodi Picoult so tiresome, her books are pretty much all same thing, and I got fed up with them after the three I read so I don’t bother with her anymore. (sorry Ms Picoult) I don’t have a heart made of stone, but it does take something to make me emotional over human beings (other than family) animal abuse will make me teary a lot more than say watching Comic Relief. So when it comes to books, it’s even harder for me to be moved to tears and I didn’t think it was going to happen until I read The Book of Negroes. This is the only book to ever make me shed actual tears, it was towards the end of the book and I almost gasped 🙂
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I haven’t read any more Jodi Picoults recently either for the same reason, Louise.
I found The Book of Negroes really moving too.
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Oh I m going loss credibility here lol but Marley and me and walking ollie both made me cry I like them as a dog owner they touched my heart sorry nothing profound or translated boof I did cry at the film of my sisters keeper Amanda want to watch it all the best stu
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Oh, Marley!!! I haven’t read the book but the film had me in floods of tears 😦
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I do get lumps but never cry. I can’t remember the lump at the end of The Book Thief so maybe I am extremely cold hearted, or alternatively, I forgot about it.
My Sister’s Keeper, yes, definitely!
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Ha ha, you MUST be cold-hearted, Judith! 😉
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I read a book years ago called After Ruth. It was about a woman who had cancer (fiction)… I dont why it surprised me… after all the book was called AFTER Ruth, but I remember sitting on the couch in the wee hours of the morning when I finished sobbing as though I had just attended her funeral.
Book Thief is another one, and like you – anything with neglect of animals or children….
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Yep, it’s animals that floor me every time too 😦
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my sister’s keeper had me sobbing so…so did the art of racing in the rain….i adore enzo!!!
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Oh Enzo made me cry too! 😦
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I want to read The Book Thief, heard only good things about it.
Little Bee by Chris Cleave made me cry my eyes out. I finished it yesterday and I cried every time I opened it and started reading. This is a book to be read at home, with a box of tissues nearby.
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Litte Bee is going on my list! Thanks for the rec 🙂
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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. It was a delayed reaction — a few minutes after I closed the book and thought about the ending for a bit, the floodgates opened.
Loved The Book Thief as well, though I didn’t cry with that one.
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I haven’t read Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, Sue, but I do have a copy. Wonder if I will react the same?
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The Help made me cry for the first time reading! It was weird because I didn’t expect it and suddenly I was sobbing and trying to get the book away from my tears so that I didn’t mess the ink up.
I was about to read The Book Thief til I read it was Holocaust-related and I completely refused even to look at it.
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The Help is another one that really moved me, but I don’t think I cried at that one.
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Oh my, I think I must be terribly cold-hearted because I can’t think of any books lately that have made me cry! I’ve never read The Book Thief, though….
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I’d love to hear what you think if you do read it, Anbolyn! 🙂
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I’ve just been reading a biography of Dodie Smith and the description of her dalmatian Charley dying of a broken heart 3 weeks after she died moved me.
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Oh, I think that would have killed me! Animal suffering is the top of my list for making me cry! 😦
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The Book Thief is quite a book. It’s definitely one of my all time favourite books.
I read Five Chimneys by Olga Lengyel a couple of years back and it was so moving I had tears running down my face and had to stop reading a couple of times. It’s one woman’s account of her time at Auschwitz.
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I am a cryer, but the book that had me weeping and wailing was Winter Garden by Kristen Hannah. Oh my gosh- such a good book, but I was so glad I was alone in the house so no one was there to see my breakdown. I highly recommend it just be sure to stock up on tissues first.
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I haven’t heard of that book, April, but I’ll be off to look it up now. Thanks for the rec 🙂
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I cried and cried in a book that our book club have recently read called ‘Between Shades Of Gray’ by Ruta Sepetys. This book has only been published in March 2011 and is brilliant. My favourite book EVER. One girl in our book club said she cried from page 1. A depressing storyline but beautiful at the same time. Do yourself a favour and read this book. I’d love to know what you think.
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Kellie, thanks for this – I have seen this book around but never picked it up; I definitely will now.
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