What Books Have Made You Cry?

On a long flight, I read Jessica Stanley’s Consider be kissed at once. Without revealing too much, the book opens in 2022 with a woman who leaves a man, then dates back to 2013 and slowly works forward. But the story is so richly detailed and fascinating that by the time I returned to 2022, I had completely forgotten what I learned in the first pages. Cue the tears in the 14th seat. If you are also humorous for a moving reading, I asked four women to share the books that made them cry …

Sanaë Lemoine, novelist and writer of kitchen books

Are you a great priest?
I went through a divorce not long ago, so I cried almost every day in private and public. But in general, I don’t cry a lot and books almost never make me cry. So, it is quite special when it happens.

Sanaë shelf

Do you remember the first book that made you cry?
In college, I read Norwegian wood By Haruki Murakami and THE YEAR OF MAGICAL THOUGHT By Joan Didion in the same week. It was my second year, and my boyfriend had just broken with me. The books were assigned reading for two different classes, and I read them on the floor of my room, sobbing. It is about pain and loss, and although my anguish felt very small compared, they provided the exact comfort I needed.

Is there any book that I have recently read that has made you cry?

A few weeks ago, I cried in the subway when I finished Dinaw Menget’s exceptional novel Someone like us. There is a layers and circularity that aggravates over time, as memories and conversations come together, feel magical. Then there is the dialogue, without ornaments but full of feelings.

Also, Little rain By Garth Greenwell, which takes place mainly in a hospital during a week, since the narrator has a medical emergency close to death. What surprised me, then took me to tears, was the love story between the narrator and his partner. How specific and universal was his love. It was fragile, tender and resistant.

Katie Sturino, founder and novelist of Megababe

Do you cry a lot?

I am a huge criero in everyday life, so you can only imagine how much the books affect me. My mom and I read All demons are here For Louise Penny aloud last summer, and we had to make my husband John take over during one part because none of us could get the words.

Katie’s Night Might

What books have made you cry lately?

I am a person from the audiobook and wow, It is not my guy: a woman against a president By E. Jean Carroll [about sexual abuse and defamation by Trump] It was difficult to listen. I listen to my books when I walk outside, but I recommend this book even if that means crying in public!

Then a few weeks ago, I cried reading my own book, Sunny Side up. During the launching event of my book in Boston, I read a paragraph about how many of us we are rewriting our stories, although we thought we would be at the end. Is it strange to cry for your own work? I hope not. I felt that it was something that many people could identify, and I was proud of myself to write it.

Jamia Wilson, author and executive editor at Random House

Are you a great priest?

I feel deeply, and I shout ugly if a story gets nervous. Recently, I shed tears of joy while I reread Phenomenal woman By Maya Angelou. Hidden inside, I found a beautiful note of my late mother, Freda, written in 1995. In it, she expressed her love and appreciation for the woman in which she was becoming 15. The book, a well -used edition that lost her coverage a long time ago in one of the many movements, remains one of my most appreciated possessions.

The used copy of Jamia

What is another book that made you cry?

I remember reading Bell Hooks Passion wounds On a bus trip from Siena to Rome during my semester abroad in 2000. I cried throughout the trip, highlighting passages, pages of dog ears and climbing my speech to my speech Stealing beauty soundtrack. There was something that those wise pages told me that this book would be a guide of a lifetime, one that would return through accounts, celebrations, revelations and hard truths. Since then I have reread it at least 20 times, and I cry every time.

What is the last book that took tears?

There is no going back By Alba de Céspedes. Set in fascist Italy during World War II, history is based on its own experiences to show the quiet strength and difficult options of common women who resist oppression, reminding us of how courage in everyday acts is essential in the fight against authoritarianism. The deep historical roots of this hopeful but challenging book and its urgent called to continue fighting for justice and freedom felt deeply relevant to the struggles we face today.

Alisha Ramos, creator of the inactivity Time Bulletin

Are you a great priest?

In general, I am a quite stoic person.

So, has you made you cry a book?

Crying in H Mart By Michelle Zauner he is one. It is a beautifully raw memory that recounts the author’s experience taking care of her mother after a diagnosis of cancer. I remember vividly a scene in which his mother cries from the next room, ‘Apeoyo, Apeoyo’ (‘It hurts, it hurts’). He took me to tears, especially when I thought about my own mother, who is Korean.

What is the last book that made you cry?

Distura and happiness By Meg Mason, a book on mental health (among other things). He felt so real and helped me feel seen for a dark time. I both laughed and cried.

What books have made you cry? Where were you? I am an easy saint, but it turns out that people are more prone to cry for airplanes.

Ps more favorite favorite books and five things I noticed in a New York bookstore.

(Top Bookcase Photo of Alpha Smoot of the first Brooklyn apartment in Joanna. Julia Robbs Saraë’s photo for Jo’s cup. Photos of Katie and Jamia de Christine Han for the cup of Jo. Happiness and happiness of Instagram. Other photos provided by the subjects).

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