A good book can sometimes lead to a good cathartic cry. This was the definitely the case when I picked up Anna Hope’s debut novel, Wake. I don’t know if I’ve cried that hard ever. It’s included in the list below, along with eight other books that will require a whole box of Kleenex. Oh and don’t skimp on the quality, you’re going to want the Kleenex with lotion, take our word on it.
1. Wake by Anna Hope
When you pick up this outstanding book, you’ll be shocked to learn that this is her first book! You’ll also be surprised at how much you’re going to cry. Set just after WWI, as Britain’s Unknown Warrior is being brought home from France; three very different women try to find ways to live again after devastating losses — of a son, a brother, a lover — and their tragic connection is gradually revealed as the book unfolds.
2. Thank You For Your Service by David Finkel
We’d be lying if we didn’t say that this is a tough book to read, but it’s also a really important read that will cause some tears. More than a work of journalism, Thank You for Your Service is an act of understanding — shocking but always riveting, unflinching but deeply humane, it takes us inside the heads of those who must live the rest of their lives with the realities of war.
3. Wave by Sonali Deraniyagala
A brave, intimate, beautifully crafted memoir by a survivor of the tsunami that struck the Sri Lankan coast in 2004 and took her entire family. Your heart will break for Sonali, but it will also be filled with hope as she uses the art of writing to heal.
4. Drunk Mom by Jowita Bydlowska
Jowita Bydlowska’s memoir of her relapse into addiction is an extraordinary achievement. The writing is raw and immediate. It places you in the moment–saddened, appalled, nerve-wracked, but never able to look away or stop turning the pages. With brutal honesty, Bydlowska takes us through the binges and blackouts, the self-deception and less successful attempts to deceive others, the humiliations and extraordinary risk-taking. She shines a light on the endless hunger of wanting just one more drink, and one more again, while dealing with motherhood, anxiety, depression–and rehab.
5. Tell the Wolves I’m Home by Carol Rifka Brunt
In my research for this post, I asked around for some input and Ainsley shared that this striking literary debut had her in shambles. Carol Rifka Brunt unfolds a moving story of love, grief, and renewal as two lonely people become the unlikeliest of friends and find that sometimes you don’t know you’ve lost someone until you’ve found them.
6. Gold by Chris Cleave
If you’re all a little sad that the Olympics are over, never fear, because Chris Cleave’s Gold will take you right back to the world of score cards and podiums. An elegant, funny, passionate story about friendship, marriage, parenthood, tragedy, and redemption. There are scenes in this novel that make us well up the moment we think of them, so be sure to have Kleenext in your lap when reading!
7. Code Name Verity by Elizabeth E. Wein
A compelling, emotionally rich story with universal themes of friendship and loyalty, heroism and bravery. The Independent states, “Moving back in time, rather than forward, Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein is an original, cleverly written Second World War story about spies, torture, women pilots, friendship and the horror of war.”
8. Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy by Helen Fielding
We all think of Bridget Jones as a hilarious singleton, but early on in this hotly anticipated third installment, Bridget experiences a loss that has all her adoring fans (raise your hands) in shambles. We don’t want to ruin too much, but we can share that Fielding introduces us to a whole new enticing phase of Bridget’s life set in contemporary London, including the challenges of maintaining sex appeal as the years roll by and the nightmare of drunken texting, the skinny jean, the disastrous e-mail cc, total lack of Twitter followers, and TVs that need 90 buttons and three remotes to simply turn on.
9. Natural Order by Brian Francis
The tears you will cry when reading this novel will be plenty! Voiced by an unforgettable and heartbreakingly flawed narrator, Natural Order is a masterpiece of empathy, a wry and tender depiction of the end-of-life remembrances and reconciliations that one might undertake when there is nothing more to lose, and no time to waste.
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