April Showers ☔

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. 

April Showers:

Books that Made Me Cry 

I have always been someone who gets emotional while I'm reading. There have been many different books that have at least brought tears to my eyes. These are all books that got me full on crying by the end. It's funny how many of these books are favorites of mine. Guess I love a good cry. 

1. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller- Having known the events of what happened in Achilles' story most of my life, I went into this book with full knowledge of the ending. Little did I know, how much I would connect with Madeline Miller's writing and characters. Patroclus and Achilles's story is one of tragedy but it is also one of the most beautiful romances I have ever read. 

2. A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness- I have read this book twice over the years. The second time was after my grandmother passed away and it hit me very hard to pick this up at that time. Don't know if I would be able to ever read it again to be honest, but it is one of my favorite young adult books I have ever read. I highly recommend it, specifically the audiobook which is narrated by Jason Issacs. He does an amazing job. 

 

3. Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom- I first read Tuesdays with Morrie the summer before my senior year of high school (2011) and then read it again during my senior year. Mitch Albom is one of my favorite authors to this day. 

 

4. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger- I first read this in high school (2010) when I was home from school not feeling well at all. Stayed on the couch the entire day and finished it. The ending broke my heart and it still is a book I think fondly of. I haven't reread this book in a very long time and plan on doing so before the sequel comes out later this year. 

5. The Outsiders by S. E. Hinton- We read The Outsiders back in eighth grade (2007/2008) and I remember liking it at the time but not loving it. Then, I reread the book during the summer before I student taught and it became one of my favorite books of all-time. I didn't think this would affect me as much as it did because I already knew the ending. It sure did though. 

6. A Grief Observed by C. S. Lewis- I started to read A Grief Observed about five months after my father passed away (probably not one of my best ideas) and I had to put the book down for about a month. It helped tremendously to read this book, which is what I thought when I had decided to pick it up. 

Grief is hard to describe but Lewis perfectly encapsulates it here. This is his own reflections on how he felt after his beloved wife, Joy, (who he calls H. in this memoir) passed away from cancer. He fell in love later in life, after being friends with her for many years. His writing style always stands out to me and this is my favorite from what I read of his. Definitely wasn't surprised by how much this affected me.  

7. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer - Another book I went into knowing it was going to hit me hard, but I was not expecting how much it would get to me. This is a story that touched my heart more than most have and I know that I will always remember it.

8. Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson- I read this book back in middle school after my teacher at the time recommended it to me. It was one of the most heartbreaking books I had read and I still to this day vividly remember it. Someday, I'd like to pick it up again. 

9. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott- I owned Little Women ever since I was about twelve when my aunt had given it to me and highly recommended it to me. At the time, I was quite intimidated by the size and didn't pick it up for a very long time. It was one of those books that I finished and thought this is a new favorite. I was spoiled for one of the major plot points in this book by Friends but it still didn't spoil the effect of it all. 

10. The South Wind (The Four Winds #3) by Alexandria Warwick- The Four Winds series is one of my absolute favorites I have read in recent years. Going into this third book in the series, I was not expecting for it to affect me in the ways that it did. It was beautiful but also very heartbreaking.