For the better or for the worst, which book actually affected you. I’ll start, The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides. Such an amazing book, well written and suprised me.
[SPOILERS]
The blurb on the back stated that each Lisbon sister k1lled themselves one by one. What I was expecting was throughout every 3 or so chapters, a Lisbon sister would kill themselves. But actually, 85% of the book, was only 1 Lisbon sister dead and the other 4 alive until the end when they all k1lled themselves. If I was told that the large majority of the book was just about the Lisbon girls life through the eyes of teenage boys and then eventually in the end they all k1ll themselves, I would probably be less interested in the book. But this book was hard to put down, it was so well written with amazing vocabulary and it spent the right amount of time explaining things (instead of using 12 pages to describe a staircase or only 3 sentences to describe a plot etc). It kept me interested and also with it being on a slightly alarming topic (suicide), it gave the book an eerie feeling which filled me with a strange comfort.
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Circe by Madeleine Miller
The Myth of Sisyphus
The ending of The Brothers Karamazov really hit hard in making me feel really sad and really happy at the same time.
The Kite Runner - it’s the first book I had a visceral reaction to. I was in such anguish, I had to physically walk away.
The Book Thief made me cry. And most recently, so did Blue Nights by Joan Didion. It’s a memoir about her losing a child, which unfortunately I can relate to.
I think what makes me feel connected to literature is the ability for authors to put into words what I can’t, thus validating my experiences and giving the book a deeper, personal meaning. As C.S. Lewis said, “We read to know we are not alone.”
I capture the castle by Dodie Smith
Not sure if it counts because it’s NF but I remember reading Unbroken & closing the book mid-page to just cry. I don’t even remember what was happening in the book but that man’s story is incredibly moving!
You can use spoiler tags to cover up that spoiler unless someone clicks it.
Some of the many books that made me feel a lot include Animal Farm (Boxer), Where the Red Fern Grows (Old Dan and Little Ann), The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen and Back Home by Michelle Magorian (both of which describe culture shock and being an outsider)
History, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee and We Regret to Inform you that Tomorrow We Will be Killed with our Families.
In fantasy, Watership Down, Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch and the Shepherd’s Crown and Guy Gavriel Kay’s Lions of Al Rassan brought tears.
Terry Pratchett’s biography A Life With Footnotes and the memoir When Breath Becomes Air were very sad.