Top Ten Tuesday- Cry Baby


My identity as crier is complicated. I cry during nearly episode of the wonderfully horrible Grey's Anatomy, bawl hysterically when I watch Follow that Bird (he turns blue! the symbolism has astounded me since childhood), and tear up whenever I think of my seniors abandoning me in a few months. There are certain people that know what buttons to press to get my going and I think I may have quietly shed a tear when we ran out of water hiking down from Half Dome a few years ago (I definitely hid that, though, with some grunted expletives). I guess I'm a bit of a closet crier. One thing that doesn't generally pull at my heart strings? Books. Strange, I know. As a part of The Broke and the Bookish's Top Ten Tuesday, here are a few exceptions:

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein: I have never cried more while reading than when I read this book- it's the animal factor. The night I knew I was going to finish it, I went outside with my book light and a box of Kleenex while my husband was playing video games and just went for it. It was incredibly cathartic and overwhelmingly sad. It's just so easy to transfer the emotions for Enzo on to my actual pets. And let's just say I'm glad the neighbors didn't see... it was pathetic.

Marley and Me by John Grogan: I read my old elementary students the young adult version of this book and had to focus very, very hard to not get started in front of them. The day I knew Marley's end was imminent I'd make sure to have a bottle of water with me to start sipping (it washes away those sobs that start building up in your throat) and would make sure to seek out a kid that was inevitably doing something wrong to scold at the height of the emotion. Some good old-fashioned discipline does wonders for sappiness. 

Charlotte's Web by EB White: I don't know if the beloved spider's death has every made me actually cry tears, but I still find it so very sad. I also hate the beginning, where Fern's dad implies that the poor tiny little piglet will be put down if it returns to the farm. 

A Map of the World by Jane Hamilton: I read this a really, really long time ago but remember just feeling down for much of it, as a woman must cope with the grief of her friend's daughter drowning under her care. To make matters worse, others accuse her of molestation and her husband ends up becoming involved with the friend whose daughter drowned. I didn't cry, but just felt so very depressed and sympathetic. 

Me Before You by JoJo Moyes: I didn't get my overly upset or anything while reading this, but I definitely did feel the end was quite sad.

White Oleander by Janet Fitch: This is another book I read over a decade ago but remember being incredibly moved by the sadness of the foster care system. 

That's all I've got! What makes you curl up in the fetal position and sob like a baby?

 

12 comments:

  1. Ahh, I remember the days when Grey's Anatomy got my teared up...

    I haven't read Me Before You but I've been hearing that the reactions have been between sad and just sobbing. Perhaps one of the reasons why I haven't gotten around to it yet; need to mentally fortify myself (and my tear ducts, just in case)

    I never read the book but I did watch the animation for Charlotte's Web when I was six. Kind of scarred me over how sad that was (it was also the only time I was ever sad over a spider).

    My TTT

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  2. Me Before You made my list too. It's such a beautiful book. Great list!

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  3. I just embarrass myself watching Grey's Anatomy. I don't give a shit about the characters, the storylines are over the top, and there I am bawling my eyes out. I don't get it, but...

    White Oleander made my list too. The foster care system sucks.

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  4. Wow. Never would've guessed that you could be a sap sometimes. I'm definitely choking back tears all the time. Kristen Bell put it best, if I'm not between a 3 and a 5 on the emotional scale, I'm crying. I don't know what's wrong with me.

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  5. Good list, White Oleander left quite an impression with me as well and I even considered it for my list but it didn't quite make it.

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  6. Good list! Like you I'm not a huge crier in books either so when I do they really stand out

    My TTT is here.

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  7. Charlotte's Web made my list, too.
    I've never read Marley & Me because I just know it will make me a big weepy mess if I do!

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  8. Hah! I cry for Grey's Anatomy too. It's quite rare for me to cry over books as well. Usually it happens a little later, catching me unawares. But animal books! Absolutely, every single time.

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  9. I kind of love it when a book makes me cry. Like you, I cry pretty easily (I bawled at the end of Lilo and Stitch. It wasn't cute.), but books have to be really good to get the waterworks. I can still remember sitting cross legged on my bed in high school as I read the end of the book Of Mice and Men. Tears streamed down my face as I realized what was happening. More recently, Killing Lincoln made me cry, which sounds crazy, but the description of the murder was pretty awful and Lincoln had worked so hard to end the war. Looking For Alaska (by John Green, it's YA) really got to me. The main character's best friend died, and he described it as feeling like you broke your glasses but there's no place to buy new ones. It's not particularly poetic but it just punched me in the gut. The feeling that something you need and love is irretrievably gone. It didn't help that Stephen was in the field so I was home alone and feeling blue.

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  10. I cry over EVERYTHING! And books. . yeah, dog books ALWAYS get me, too!!!!

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  11. I cry during sad movies. I cry all the time when I watch Dumbo and I recently cried when I watched 12 Years A Slave. I don't cry when I read books though. Maybe because I can't actually see the images, but only imagine them.

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  12. My Sister's Keeper by Jodi Picoult. I had to leave the movie because I was crying so hard!! And I knew how it ended!

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