Books that actually emotionally moved you?

When I was a little kid I read "Charlotte's Web", "Where the Red Fern Grows", and "Old Yeller" and I ended up bursting into tears.
"The Education of Little Tree" made me cry a couple times as well.

More recently:
Surprisingly, DragonLance has been an emotional one for me; It has made me laugh my head off and burst into tears.
Persuasion by Jane Austen This one got me so worked up and excited that I could hardly stand it.
There are a couple more, however, I cannot recall their titles right now.

 

Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
The Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
My Name is Asher Lev - Chaim Potok
Of Human Bondage - W. Somerset Maugham
The Heart is a Lonely Hunter - Carson McCullers
The Color Purple - Alice Walker

The poems of Robert Frost, Ted Hughes, Federico Garcia Lorca and Antonio Machado.

 

As a child, Socks by Beverly Cleary was amond my favorites. I never cried, but I felt complete joy reading that book. There was also another cat book that I can't remember the name of. It was about the journey of a stray cat who kept going through different scenarios. He finally ended up with a permanent home.

Books that disturbed me, Push: A Novel by Sapphire I really was disturbed by the unfairness in this book. What really got to me, is things like that actually HAPPEN! The rape scenes that she actually enjoyed what her father was doing AND hated it at the same time... it really leaves me disturbed.

A have cried at several books, but none are coming to my mind! Though I will say I can never read Marley and Me... because the movie makes me bawl my eyes out, I don't want to imagine what the book will do....

 

Oh! I did enjoy thoroughly The Shack.... The Road was pretty sad ....and also The Lovely Bones had me mad as fire at the stupid killer. He got what he deserved.

Also, Odd Thomas ... the end is sad.

 

The Distance From Normandy by Jonathan Hull

One of my all time favorites and one of the two books I've read multiple times.

 

Two I can think of right now that left me just... stunned:

1984 and A tale of two cites.

 

Deffinatly the Shining by Stephen King And The Lost Weekend By Charles Jackson. I don't drinkany more and these 2 books I could really understand and truly feel.

 

They've both been mentioned before but The Book Thief and One Day (David Nichols) made me weep.
One Day was pretty incredible and I'd like to know how he did it. I didn't just cry, I mourned. It still brings a tear to my eye to think about it. I felt like the main characters were old friends of mine. And as I got towards the end I slowed down, reading a few lines at a time, because I knew I'd never see any of them again.
Parting is such sweet sorrow!

 

Recently: The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern and Divergent/Insurgent by Veronica Roth

Not so recent: Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card and the Harry Potters by well, you know.

 

"The Perks of Being a Wallflower"

I always read that book and I am in love with it.

 

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green absolutely destroyed me. I haven't cried that much at a book in a long time.

 

The Great Gatsby moved me. It gave me a terrible feeling of revulsion and shock. I'm really glad I read it.

 

The childhood scenes in Stephen King's It are very touching and bring back a rich mixture of feelings ranging from nostalgia to anger to sheer joy at being alive. The Stand, which is a favorite book of mine, also has incredibly moving scenes, especially where Frannie tells her folks she's pregnant, and where Stu is left in the ravine. His writing almost always evokes strong emotions from me.

Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms is another book that takes me on an emotional journey. The contrast between the rich characters and his spare style of writing evokes a stoicism that I find engaging, too.

I loved Catcher in the Rye. Not everyone does. There's a lot I can relate to in Holden Caulfield, in terms of alienation, that has me laughing and crying throughout the reading.

 

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov. I have never yet read anything else that has carried me through such a shifting pattern of emotions. Given the subject, you would expect to feel rage, but I was astounded by how much pity I felt for the narrator as well; when I finished it I sat by myself crying for a long time, which... isn't the most traditional recommendation, but nevertheless, it remains my favourite book to date.

 

"The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" by John Boyne and "On the Beach" by Nevil Shute. Both are utterly heartbreaking.

 

Kite Runner, Marley and Me, Memoirs of a Geisha, To Kill A Mockingbird

Kite Runner was so depressing that later I thought the author was guided by Murphy's law, "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong."

 

The one that automatically sprung to mind was "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini, closely followed by "The Horse Whisperer" by Nicholas Evans.

Both novels created characters that I actually cared about and who were believable. They had good points, they had bad points but most of all they were human and you could identify with them. That is really important to me in a good book. The stories were told in such a way that I could visualise the scenes from the words that authors used.

Beautifully written..

 

Have you read "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by the same author? I enjoyed that too and am currently sat in a coffee shop as I type trying to decide which was the more depressing book! I really hoped that Khaled Hosseini would write more books but no sign of it so far

 

stanger ina stange land robert heinlen.

 

Golden Compass I concur with that one.

I'd like to add The Hunger Games to this list (the entire trilogy). The ending of that story .... omg. Nothing could have prepared me for that.

 

Let me tell you now - Hemingway...is very very dangerous to read as a young man. Most of my ideals regarding masculinity have been in someway influenced by the great American.

We all had that Salinger phase in high school, though I didn't really appreciate Catcher in the Rye until freshman year in college. Aside from the obvious alienation I felt at the time, what I really connected to with Holden, was his blanket obsession with protecting the innocence/integrity of youth. From a psychological viewpoint, it's a rather fantastic survey of his character. As someone who's going into the field of delving into people's minds/lives in order to help them, I can understand what it's like to want to blindly save the world even though it wants to just push you away. That probably won't make a lot of sense to anyone, haha.

Dumas' Monte Cristo also had an impact. I don't know what it is, I love a good tragedy. Even if the protagonist doesn't die, sad endings fill me up with an irresistible melancholy that I am bloody addicted to! That being said, a man who gets everything taken away from him at the peak of his life...an adventure epic of resurrection and of death. Then there's Dostoevsky's Raskolnikov. A novel that celebrates the human mind as well as highlighting its double-edged traits. Similar to Dantes, Raskolnikov goes on a quest of redemption subconsciously.

You get the point. I'm going to stop babbling now.

 

Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson moved me very deeply. It didn't squeeze a single tear out of me, but after finishing the book (which I did in one sitting, since it's not too long), I felt an extreme sense of depression cloud over me and a heavy weight in my chest. It is mostly because I can deeply relate to the story and have ties to the main character as well. Very chilling and emotional.

One other book would be The Chosen by Chaim Potok. I actually had to read it one year for school as a requirement of my summer reading. The first two chapters really dragged on, and I didn't think too highly of the book, as I was quite bored with it. However, once I began to read further, it suddenly took up my interest. I grew attached to the characters and their emotions. It isn't the first book to make me cry, but I still cried. It's extremely profound and moving, even though it might not seem that way at first.

 

I have to say that I HIGHLY recommend any book by Mitch Albom. His writing is just a different type that makes you think but does not force it, it comes naturally. His technique is thought provoking and truly leaves you feeling what he is trying to portray. Most of his books are based off of real life stories, if not all of them but I am not 100% positive. I recommend to everyone and every person I meet to read his books. They truly changed my perspective on life and made me feel things I never knew I could or would. I hope you enjoy

 

Varjak Paw by SF Said made me jump, weep and gasp in awe. So did The Outlaw Varjak Paw. I read it years ago in primary school and even though it was simple, it made me emotional. The second book was Call of the Wild and another dog book that made me cry. Of course I love the Harry Potter series, and The Ranger's Apprentice, but those made me the most emotional. There are probably more I haven't recovered but thats all I can think of.

 

I agree with Afion re Elizabeth Laird. Her book Crusade is just the best children's story I've ever read (and as I'm doing a postgrad course in creative writing, writing my own novels for children, I've read a gazillion by other authors! )

1984 did scare the pants off me as a teenager.

Right now I am ocnducting research for a YA book I'm writing about the Nazi Euthnasia program and am reading By Trust Betrayed. Man, it is emotive. Twice, I've had to put it down and walk away, I felt so sickened.