Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. This week's question is to list your top 10 books that made you cry:
1. Terry Fox's autobiography. Terry Fox was an amazing Canadian who attempted to run across Canada on one good leg and one prosthetic one to raise money for cancer research. I can't remember the title because I read it when I was about 12 (many many years ago) but I distinctly remember crying my eyes out when his cancer returned and he wrote about giving up the run and accepting that he was going to die. His mother, Betty, was one of the final torchbearers at the Winter Olympics' opening ceremony in Vancouver this year and I cried at that too (yep, I'm a marshmallow)
2. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas by John Boyne. That ending. I closed the book at the end and just thought for a moment, then the tears started.
3. Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. OK, I did see the musical first and bawled through most of the second act, so when I cried while reading the book it could have been a Pavlovian response (I still can't hear some of the songs without weeping) but the scene where Eponine dies in Marius' arms gets me every time.
4. The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein. My response to this one was proof that I could never own a pet. Too emotionally draining.
There have been other books that have made me horribly sad: The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini, Room by Emma Donoghue, The Tower the Zoo and the Tortoise by Julia Stuart, but I can't say that I cried upon reading them.
What books make you cry?
I didn't cry when I read Les Mis but seeing in Broadway (and sometimes if I'm in the right/wrong mood, listening to the soundtrack) makes me well up. And I loved Eponine.
ReplyDeleteThank you for recognizing Terry Fox. Being Canadian, he often is the first name I hear when the definition of hero is brought up. Glad you are inspired by his cause. Here's my top 10.
ReplyDeleteTeacher/Learner: I grew up in Winnipeg, and I remember the day Terry Fox had to stop the Marathon they announced it over the intercom at school. We were devastated.
ReplyDeleteLes Miserables--read it and loved it way back in high school (waaay back!). I am adding The Art of Racing in the Rain to my TBR list...
ReplyDeleteAwesome list, and how great of you to add Terry Fox - as a Canadian myself, its great that you reconized him :) And his story is very sad.
ReplyDeleteHere's my list right here
I love Les Mis the musical too. I should reread the book some day when I'm feeling ambitious. I don't remember if I cried.
ReplyDeleteI recently cried at the end of HALF OF A YELLOW SUN. I just wanted it to be happy and, in the end, it was realistic. Very satisfying all the same.
I MUST read Striped Pyjamas.
ReplyDeleteHere's my TT:
http://readerbuzz.blogspot.com/2010/11/top-ten-books-that-made-you-cry.html