What book have you read that honestly made you "feel?"?

Question

My 11 year old daughter just finished reading a story. The whole time she was reading she'd stop and excitedly tell me what was happening to the main character. Suddenly......she gasped. She then started to just sigh. Finally her bottom lip started quivering. As she finished the story, she looked up at me and said, "That is the saddest story I've ever read." She put her book back on the shelf and then turned around and said, " I love books that make me feel......" I said, "Books that make you feel how?" She corrected me by saying, "No Mom. I like books that just make me.....FEEL."

I have to agree......a book that brings out ANY emotion is a book you want to savor.

So what book out there makes you.......Feel?

Answer 1

lol awesome kid you have there, Groover.
Wuthering Heights made my chest tight and brought me to the verge on tears on a bus full of people going to work.
Catch-22 made me feel both irrespressibly happy and made me ghash my teeth in sympathy with the utterly impotent fury of those trapped in war. Similarly, I'm with the poster who mentioned A Boy Called It - moments in that made me panic and my heart flood up with wanting to DO something for David, the central figure. A book that recently made me feel the need to take action was "As Used On The Famous Nelson Mandela" by a UK comedian and activist named Mark Thomas. It's a real life expose of the illegal - and legal - sale of guns and torture equipment to dubious regimes by UK companies. Fury, outrage, the need to stand up and shout. All good things to feel when faced with an uncomfortable truth.

Thank whatever you believe in for the gift of writers that can make you feel, and for the gift of children that can remind you how important that is.

Answer 2

Awww. Your story made me smile.

The most recent book I read that really made me feel was called "The Widow of the South". It is a fictional story based on real people during the civil war. It just really brought home the things the soldiers and family went through during that time. I think because it happend so long ago we've kind of turned it into this romantic era. But it was devastating and the loss of life was unimaginable. There was so much insight into what goes through a soldiers mind during battle and how people cope with loss and struggle to get through their daily lives. It was an amazing book.

Answer 3

Awesome question. I think there are several. I read The Lord of the Rings triology 3 times through when I was in college. It is a wonderful story and really had an impact. But there were two stories I read in college literature that grabbed me pretty deeply. One was Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert. The other was Billy Budd by Herman Melville. Billy Budd remains one of my favorite stories. Though not as well known as Moby Dick, Billy Budd is full of imagery and conflict that is timeless. The Christ character in The Green Mile seems to be borrowed from Billy Budd. The end of the story shows Billy Budd being executed for striking the horrible Claggart on a British naval ship. Of all of the injustices of all of humanity, Budd's execution seems to top them all. It is as though he was born simply too beautiful for this world.

Answer 4

I just recently put down, "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini. It is an amazing book, the authors first outing and very prescient, I would highly recommend it. It is a very moving novel and absolutely enthralling.It is a story about Afghanistan but the themes are universal. I would say it is by far one of the most compelling books I ever read.
Once I picked it up I could not put it down and read it in one sitting. Then I read it again. Hosseini's style is very personal and you feel like you are living his story. You run the gamut of every emotion and in the end you feel like it is your story.
I could not say enough about this book.

Answer 5

Thank you for sharing this family scene. You should send it to one of the chicken soup books or to Reader's Digest.
A book that really touched me was an oldie from the 1930s, Tryst by Elswyth Thane.
I once knew a lady who said libraries shouldn't have animal stories in the children's section. When I asked her why, she said, "because most of them have a sad ending." Can you imagine removing Bambi, Black Beauty, and Old Yeller from the shelves? These are books that really make the reader feel.

Answer 6

well right now I'm reading Jane Eyre. It is written so beautifully and you can literally understand and "feel" what is going on in the story. I don't know if you've read it at all, so I won't spoil any part for you, but after I read a certain part, literally held the book to my chest and sighed. I closed my eyes and said, wow that is what I want.

Answer 7

Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.
Being a vegetarian, I soooo identified with Sam-I-Am. Poor guy had no interest in eating the accursed Ham, he just wanted to be left in peace. He manages to fend off the incessant peer pressure for damn near the whole book, but in the end he relents and partakes in the unholy slaughter by eating the flesh of an innocent creature.
I wept... *sigh*

Answer 8

Ken Follett's Pillars of the Earth. Felt like I was living each one of the characters lives during the Middle Ages. One of the descriptions he used was the Blood Lust of War in describing the men after they had seen so much death and killing. I cant say I savor the emotion it brought out in me , which was pain.The book made me feel it like I was living it.

Answer 9

The Great Gatsby, and pretty much everything that Hemingway wrote - Farewell to Arms was amazing.

Also Summer, by Edith Wharton.

All of those made me cry, and I'm a guy.

Reading the Fights was a super collection of essays.

I was also moved by the lyrics to the songs on Bob Dylan's Blonde on Blonde. I guess it's hip to say you love that album - I'm sick of having to apologize for loving things that ultimately come back into vogue, so I won't.

And lastly, F.A. Hayek's "Road to Serfdom." It made me think AND feel.

Answer 10

Farewell to Arms was the first one, then the Great Gatsby, the Grapes of Wrath, Lord Jim, King Lear...the list goes on.

The most recent one is Pride and Prejudice.

I love these books, but I also hate them. No matter how many times I read them, they still have the same effect on me. It usually takes me weeks to get over it.