Top Ten Picks; Books that make you cry

This week Random Ramblings are hosting a 'top ten books that make you cry'. Chris this week has only submitted one book to the list, because men don't cry don't you know ;)

Marley & Me by John Grogen

Its about a dog, and the dog eventually gets old and dies. How could you not cry at that unless you have a heart of stone. Its quite a good book about a typical American family trying to live with a mad dog in the household which makes it funny, and then the dog gets old and dies which makes it sad.

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

I cried loads after reading this. The whole time reading this book I was terrified something bad was going to happen to the nameless man and boy in the book (but of course something bad had happened) I think it was the right ending for this book but even if the ending had been different by that time I had been on such an emotional journey I would have cried whatever the ending.

Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

You know when you start reading a book and you know your going to be crying at the end of it? It was like this for me. Just because man can, doesn't mean he should.

The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak

I suspect this will be on many peoples list, even though you know its coming because the narrator has told you (had in fact given you plenty of notice) its still devastating. Chris will completely deny this now but he got a bit wet around the eyes when he read it.

The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

In Chris's words

The Bell Jar' resonates very deeply with me on a personal level too. I can appreciate (to a lesser degree) what Esther is going through. I find the best kinds of literature most deserving of praise are always those that people can personally relate to.

The Bell Jar made me cry. This has happened to me before with films but never with a book. It's the first time I've fully realised what a profound effect literature can have on a human being. I cannot recommend The Bell Jar highly enough.

There you have it, oh yes and there are only five this week. Well even with putting our heads together this is all we came up with. We did think of adding books which had also 'made us a little sad' but even then the list only came to seven.

We can use the 'oh but we're English we don't cry' excuse but that's not gonna cut it. Maybe we haven't read enough tragic love stories (I do have the time travellers wife on my TBR list) or maybe because we were never subjected to 'Where the Red Fern Grows' as children. I don't know.