Nine Books That Should Be Read With A Box Of Tissues To Hand
1. If Cats Disappeared from the World by Genki Kawamura
Picador
"The last three chapters made me absolutely bawl my eyes out."
– Key_Objective4426
About the book: We follow our narrator, who lives alone and has no one for company other than his cat, Cabbage. His life is suddenly turned around when he's told that he only has one month left to live. While processing this shocking information, and before he can set out ticking off his bucket-list, he is visited by the devil, who offers him one extra day of life in exchange for making something from the world disappear. What entails is a decision making process fraught with delicate balance, and a journey into discovering what in this life we hold dear, and what we can be without.
2. The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
Bloomsbury Paperbacks
" The Kite Runner made me lose my shit on a plane and I didn't even care. I was quietly sobbing up against the window."
– Feeling_Manner426
About the book: Amir is a young boy from a well-off family in Afghanistan. As a child, he betrays his best and most loyal friend Hassan, a decision that will consume him over years with regret and shame. Set in the landscape of political unrest, we explore Amir's hunt for redemption and forgiveness.
3. Beloved by Toni Morrison
Alfred A. Knopf
"I cried just describing that book to my husband. Utterly gorgeous writing, unparalleled."
– postpunktheon
About the book: In post-Civil War USA, we follow Sethe, an escaped slave who is living in a dysfunctional house with other former slaves. The house itself seems to be haunted by some sort of spirit. The interactions between Sethe, the spirit, and the other occupants make them face the horror's of their past.
4. The Necessity of Rain by Sarah Chorn
Rainbow Publishing Limited
"It is SO beautiful, it made me cry multiple times and just ugh truly probably the most beautiful book I've ever read."
– darkenough812
About the book: This fantasy book reads like some sort of adult fairytale, delving into the intricacies of loss, grief, and survival. It's a mystical tale of gods losing their divinity, and the struggle to survive through hard, mortal, change.
5. The Choice: Embrace the Possible by Edith Eger
Scribner Book Company
"I'm reading this right now! Was reading it in public the other day and had to tell myself, 'do not start sobbing right now'."
– parrots-carrots
About the book: This is the memoir of Edith Eger, who was a ballerina and gymnast before, at 16, she was sent to Auschwitz where she was immediately separated from her parents. Her experience in the camp was one of unimaginable horrors, and when the camp was finally liberated, she was pulled, barely alive from a pile of bodies. The Choice recounts these traumatic experiences, but also focuses on the strength, resilience, and life-affirming effect her time had upon her.
6. Don't Cry For Me by Daniel Black
Hanover Square Press
Suggested by: moon_dust843
About the book: Jacob is dying, and as his time left shortens, he begins writing letters to his only son, Isaac, who he has not met or spoken to in years. In his writings, he tells Isaac the stories he needs to know about their family. From the ancestral history, going back to slavery, to his tumultuous relationship with Isaac's mother, and experiences that led to his reaction to Issac being gay and his behaviour as a father in general. This is a book about reconciliation, one that covers hard truths with an authentic, and overall hopeful message.
7. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
Faber and Faber
Suggested by: masson34
About the book: Set at an English boarding school where students are taught nothing of the outside world, we follow three pupils who grow up within the confines of the school. When it's time for them to leave, however, they, and we, understand what their pleasant boarding school really was, and the dystopian and shocking elements of this futuristic world are revealed.
8. Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes
Mariner Books
Suggested by: shortshift_
About the book: Charlie Gordon has an unusually low IQ. This makes him the perfect candidate for a new procedure that should increase his IQ, just like it did to a lab mouse named Algernon. After the surgery, Charlie does indeed start becoming more intelligent, more so than the scientists behind this experiment. Everything changes when Algernon begins to deteriorate, and we begin to worry that the same will happen to Charlie.
9. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
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