I love reading, and I typically read from a variety of genres. However, I am always greatly intrigued by books that are emotional and change my life after reading. If you’re looking for a book that gets the tears flowing, here are some of my favorites that have made me cry.
All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr
This book is gorgeously written, switching perspectives from a blind French girl to a German boy in the military during the second world war. This book includes beautiful imagery of Saint-Malo, France, and captures the complexities surrounding love, war, morality, and life and death. This book was so bittersweet for me to read, and portions of it had me tearing up for the way it portrayed how love really makes the world go round.
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi
If you want to have your heart broken, stomped on, and set on fire, this book is perfect for you. This autobiography of neurosurgeon Paul Kalanithi follows his life and his exploration of the meaning of it after being diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. This book made me take a deep dive into the meaning of life and the ethics within medicine, providing a perspective I had not been familiar with. The ending of this book was honestly not what I expected, and it made me sob for probably an hour. This is a beautiful piece I would recommend to anyone.Â
A Million Little Pieces by James Frey
This book, written by James Frey, is a semi-fictional piece on the author’s struggle with addiction at the age of 23. The story follows James after being admitted to a rehab facility where themes of alcoholism, addiction, and trauma are discussed. This book provided me with a lot of insight into addiction from the perspective of an addict, emphasizing the importance of narrative storytelling as a means of informing others. I loved the short and blunt sentence structure Frey used, and I learned a lot from this book.Â
A Lesson Before Dying by Earnest J. Gaines
This book is about a young black man who is convicted of murder and receives the death penalty during the Jim Crow Era. The boy is continuously visited by one of the town’s teachers who, reluctant at first, is asked to remind the man of his humanity before his death. This book, too, explores the meaning of life and the moral implications of crime and punishment, specifically the death penalty. This book has a very bittersweet ending, and it made me tear up with the way the characters were drastically transformed.