Book Reccomendations: Books that made me cry

By Lily Date, 2023

Published 10/17/22

If you ask my lifelong friends, they can probably tell you that sad books and movies don't usually make me cry. Heck, I was making jokes while they were sobbing when watching Titanic. So when a book makes me tear up, it's usually for a good reason. Here are four books described by how they made me cry, for your reading pleasure.

Salt to the Sea - Ruta Sepetys

Speaking of the large disastrous ship sinkages like The Titanic, Salt to the Sea is about a lesser-known, but much bigger maritime tragedy in the Baltic Sea. This book gives you both a history lesson, and the empty feeling in your heart that comes with knowing from the beginning that people aren't going to survive. Also a love story. All the best things.

Orbiting Jupiter - Gary D. Schmidt

Orbiting Jupiter introduces you to Joseph, a fourteen-year-old just out of prison, through the view of his new foster brother. Joseph almost killed a teacher. Joseph was incarcerated. And Joseph has a daughter. If you are looking for a book that teaches you about the powers of friendship and family, and then rips it all away, this is definitely the book for you.

Flamer - Mike Curato

I picked up this book thinking “Hey, it's a nutmeg nominee, surely it will be a cute short comic that's not going to make me sad.” Nope. This book hit me like a truck. This book tore out my heart, stomped on it, and threw it in a muddy riverbed, all in 30 short minutes. Flamer is a coming-of-age story set at boy scout summer camp, and I’m almost 100% sure that everyone can find at least one thing to relate to in this graphic novel.

Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

Yes, this is a school book. However, if you managed to make it through your junior year without reading this book, I highly recommend you read it now. Like Salt to the Sea, nothing makes a book fun to read like a sense of impending doom and emotional exhaustion. Have tissues nearby.

If all else fails, and you still haven’t cried after reading these books, get a book where a dog dies. That always works.