Controversial Books

This page shows your 100 most controversial books, as measured by the standard deviation of members star ratings. (This is also the source of the Zeitgeist category "25 Books People Can't Agree on.") To be included, a book must have been rated at least 20 times. Work titles are given.

Standard
Deviation
RatingTitle
1.53.41The Edge of Evolution: The Search for the Limits of Darwinism by Michael J. Behe
1.3343.45The Shack by William P. Young
1.3123.44Slander: Liberal Lies About the American Right by Ann Coulter
1.2733.7How to Know God: The Soul's Journey into the Mystery of Mysteries by Deepak Chopra
1.2563.72The Book of J by David Rosenberg
1.2084.18Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne
1.1993.74Philosophy: Who Needs It by Ayn Rand
1.1723.19Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine by Harold Bloom
1.1653.85From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans (2 Vols. in 1) by John Hope Franklin
1.1553.92Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
1.1544.24Writings : Autobiography / Notes on the State of Virginia / Public and Private Papers / Addresses / Letters by Thomas Jefferson
1.1513.7A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished Christian by Brian D. McLaren
1.1443.61Caesar's Legion: The Epic Saga of Julius Caesar's Elite Tenth Legion and the Armies of Rome by Stephen Dando-Collins
1.1393.29Ten Philosophical Mistakes by Mortimer J. Adler
1.1353.67The Unauthorized Version: Truth and Fiction in the Bible by Robin Lane Fox
1.1323.76The Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan
1.1313.59The Virtue of Selfishness by Ayn Rand
1.1223.66The American Civil War: A Military History by John Keegan
1.1193.64The Dead Sea Scrolls by Michael O. Wise
1.1184.35Redburn, Whitejacket, Moby Dick by Herman Melville
1.1144.14Random House Word Menu: New and Essential Companion to the Dictionary by Stephen Glazier
1.1064.05Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK by Gerald Posner
1.1044.02A New Kind of Christian: A Tale of Two Friends on a Spiritual Journey by Brian D. McLaren
1.1023.46Christ the Lord: Out of Egypt by Anne Rice
1.13.62The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom
1.0983.68The Secret Message of Jesus: Uncovering the Truth that Could Change Everything by Brian McLaren
1.0954.09Typee, Omoo, Mardi by Herman Melville
1.0933.62On the Nature of the Universe by Lucretius
1.093.8The Ayn Rand Lexicon by Ayn Rand
1.0823.64The Laughing Jesus: Religious Lies and Gnostic Wisdom by Timothy Freke
1.0813.4The Quest for Arthur's Britain by Geoffrey Ashe
1.0793.97The French Revolution: A History by Thomas Carlyle
1.0773.92The Fatal Conceit: The Errors of Socialism by F. A. Hayek
1.0713.77Moral Man and Immoral Society: A Study in Ethics and Politics by Reinhold Niebuhr
1.0693.65Anthem by Ayn Rand
1.0614.13My Utmost for His Highest by Oswald Chambers
1.0593.98The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand
1.0573.87The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia by René Grousset
1.0473.59Lost Scriptures: Books that Did Not Make It into the New Testament by Bart D. Ehrman
1.0443.36Dark Age Ahead by Jane Jacobs
1.0443.98Everything Must Change: Jesus, Global Crises, and a Revolution of Hope by Brian McLaren
1.0443.64Jesus, A Revolutionary Biography by John Dominic Crossan
1.0413.33The Bible as History by Werner Keller
1.0393.74The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
1.0334.14The Odes of Horace by Horace
1.0294.05Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews -- A History by James Carroll
1.0273.09Six Great Ideas by Mortimer J. Adler
1.023.79God's Problem: How the Bible Fails to Answer Our Most Important Question--Why We Suffer by Bart D. Ehrman
1.0193.93Why Christianity Must Change or Die by John Shelby Spong
1.0163.9The Five Gospels: The Search for the Authentic Words of Jesus by Robert W. Funk
1.0163.65The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw
1.0143.65Hagakure by Tsunetomo Yamamoto
1.0093.85Care of the Soul : A Guide for Cultivating Depth and Sacredness in Everyday Life by Thomas Moore
1.0093.8The Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln by Sean Wilentz
1.0073.57Sailing the Wine-Dark Sea by Thomas Cahill
1.0033.5Great Lion of God by Taylor Caldwell
1.0013.93The Fall of Paris: The Siege and the Commune 1870-71 by Alistair Horne
0.9983.19Fences and Windows: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate by Naomi Klein
0.9964.17The Basic Works of Aristotle by Aristoteles
0.9924.06Cosmic Trigger I: Final Secret of the Illuminati by Robert A. Wilson
0.9923.9Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
0.9923.67Introduction to Aristotle by Aristoteles
0.9884Blue Like Jazz by Donald Miller
0.9843.62Aristotle for Everybody : Difficult Thought Made Easy by Mortimer J. Adler
0.9843.82Nicomachean Ethics (Ethica Nicomachae) by Aristoteles
0.9823.67Who Killed Jesus?: Exposing the Roots of Anti-Semitism in the Gospel Story of the Death of Jesus by John Dominic Crossan
0.9813.73How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill
0.984.32The Exhaustive concordance of the Bible by James Strong
0.9773.45Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
0.9763.49Thermopylae: The Battle That Changed the World by Paul Cartledge
0.9753.85The End of Faith by Sam Harris
0.9743.79The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
0.973.71The Prince by Niccolò Machiavelli
0.9683.98Siddhartha by Hermann Hesse
0.9654.02How to Read a Book by Mortimer J. Adler
0.963.77The Secret History by Procopius
0.9583.85The Art of War by Sun Tzu
0.9563.8The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief by Francis S. Collins
0.9533.91Human Smoke: The Beginnings of World War II, the End of Civilization by Nicholson Baker
0.9533.84The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber
0.9523.71No Logo: No Space, No Choice, No Jobs by Naomi Klein
0.953.88Oxford Bible Companion by Bruce M. Metzger
0.9493.93Parallel Worlds : A Journey Through Creation, Higher Dimensions, and the Future of the Cosmos by Michio Kaku
0.9483.96The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot by Naomi Wolf
0.9483.82First Things First by Stephen R. Covey
0.9483.98The Symposium by Plato
0.9474.06The Iliad by Homer
0.9473.79Salt: A World History by Mark Kurlansky
0.9443.84The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism by Andrew Bacevich
0.9433.78More Ready Than You Realize by Brian D. McLaren
0.9424.02The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
0.9393.76A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War by Victor Davis Hanson
0.9363.86The Consolation of Philosophy by Boethius
0.9353.7The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity by Richard Fletcher
0.9353.85The Origin of Satan: How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics by Elaine Pagels
0.9353.83What Jesus Meant by Garry Wills
0.9343.74Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell
0.9343.88Alexander the Great by Robin Lane Fox
0.9333.71A History of the Vikings by Gwyn Jones
0.9333.63Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life by Robert N. Bellah
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