Top Ten Tuesday: Aww, Valentine's Day!

From the awesome someecards.com

Happy Valentine's Day all!  And Happy Top Ten Tuesday from The Broke and the Bookish.

This weeks topic: Top Ten Books That Broke My Heart a Little.  Sorry if my list is a little wacky today; I've been working really hard and am coming off a long binge of grading. 

10. Billy Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet:  Okay, so she is like fourteen, and a little over the moon about ol' Romeo in that annoying tween with a crush way.  And it is kind of overwrought and all that, but it is oh so funny, and oh so tragic, and oh so poignantly about teenagers (in the days before John Green), and it breaks my heart.

9. Ian McEwan, Atonement:  Sadness, so much sadness.

8. Maira Kalman, And The Pursuit of Happiness:  So, my heart automatically beats sadness when you talk about breaking it, but this just kind of made it explode.  The world was a little more rosy colored after reading this.

7. John Grogan, Marley and Me:  Although I like to think about how I care about people more than animals, and it should make me super sad pants to read about war, I didn't cry during my audiobook of Unbroken, but with this, I had to pull over so I could weep at a rest stop.

6.Dave Eggers, Zeitoun:  This book is so beautiful, but it really made me feel a little like I was going to explode with a sense of hopelessness and futility during some parts.  Although those parts were no fun, this is still such an important book.  I cried about people while reading this, and about injustice. Just read Maira Kalman afterwards (see above).

5. Craig Thompson, Blankets:  This is the kind of book that makes you think about the relationships in your life.  It's nostalgic, and a little heartbreaking, and the illustrations are so feathery and soft and flowing.

4. Katy Butler, "What Broke my Father's Heart" in Best American Essays of 2011: This one really brought on the waterworks for me.  It's an essay, it's oh so human, and it is excruciating. Read it.

3. T. R. Reid, The Healing of America:  Again, people making me cry.

2. Justin Richardson, And Tango Makes Three:  This was another heart exploder. I loved this story so much, and I wanted to read it to every kid I know.

1. John Green, The Fault in our Stars:  My face was covered in snot the whole time I was reading this.  Is that too much information? If so, just kidding.  Seriously though,  I was so emotional in so many ways, all across the spectrum.