My husband says I have a heart of stone. It’s not true, I don’t. I’ll sob just watching a Hallmark commercial. Remember the Budweiser baby horse commercial during the Superbowl? Moved me to tears. But it’s rare that a book will actually make me cry.
Here’s my partial list of books that will always make me cry- and yeah, of course some are designed to make the reader cry, damn them!
Brokeback Mountain, by Annie Proulx
Brokeback Mountain
Shogun, by James Clavell
Shogun
Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre
Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott
Little Women
All the Pretty Horses, by Cormac McCarthy
All the Pretty Horses
A Grain of Wheat, by Ngugi Wa Thiong’o
A Grain of Wheat
Brown Girl, Brownstones, by Paule Marshall
Brown Girl, Brownstones
Beloved, by Toni Morrison
Beloved
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker
The Color Purple
True Grit, by Charles Portis
True Grit
Little Big Man, by Thomas Berger
Little Big Man
Charlotte’s Web, by E.B. White
Charlotte’s Web - I become incoherent when I read the part where…
The Dog Stars, by Peter Heller
The Dog Stars
Love You Forever, by Robert Munsch
Love You Forever (Kill me now.)
Love Story, by Erich Segal
Love Story (I hate this book.)
Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell
Black Beauty
Beautiful Joe, by Margaret Marshall Saunders
Beautiful Joe
Hey, what are your must-cry books?
I can’t believe you didn’t include Old Yeller in your all time animal tearjerker review.
Oh my gawd, Yoshi - that is because Old Yeller and Sounder were too traumatic for words!
Oh Love Story is a tear jerker. Charlotte’s Web too. Oh damn most on your list have had me in tears.
The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton
The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg
My kids know I burst into tears on the last page of both of these books when I’m reading them. Every. Time. It’s a little bit embarrassing.
Let’s not forget Where the Red Fern Grows. How many schoolchildren has THAT book traumatized?
My other cryer is The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell. You know from page one that every character in the book is doomed but dammit, you fall in love with them anyway. Ms. Russell is cruel, cruel, cruel.
Oh lord, even thinking about some of those chokes me up…
Wuthering Heights.
This one might seem strange, but … BLACK SUNDAY, by Thomas Harris. The ending just slays me.
Hi Jaye. Yeah, I thought about Wuthering Heights but Heathcliff is just so damn dysfunctional I had a hard time not hating him. A love-hate thing. Now I have to read Black Sunday.
Oh, totally, Margaret! Where the Red Fern Grows? And The Red Pony? Authors should be head-slapped for writing those books! And making kids read ‘em. Steinbeck often reduces me to tears.
Yeah, kids books, Penny. So emotive! The Polar Express - kind of. I better read The Little House.
Sorry, Amber. You’re back! Yay! Hope you feel a little okay.