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	Rating	Title
1.28	2.8	Bad Boy by Olivia Goldsmith
1.178	3.53	The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown
1.173	3.13	Eats, Shites & Leaves by A. Parody
1.143	3.7	A Big Storm Knocked It Over by Laurie Colwin
1.132	3.71	Christmas Holiday by W. Somerset Maugham
1.128	3.03	Olivia Joules and the Overactive Imagination by Helen Fielding
1.122	3.81	The Book of Kells: An Illustrated Introduction to the Manuscript in Trinity College Dublin by Bernard Meehan
1.108	3.38	Property Of by Alice Hoffman
1.103	3.64	Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West by Gregory Maguire
1.101	3.27	The Old Wine Shades by Martha Grimes
1.1	3.62	The Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom
1.098	3.34	The Good Men: A Novel of Heresy by Charmaine Craig
1.096	3.61	On the Occasion of My Last Afternoon by Kaye Gibbons
1.096	3.52	The Blue Flower by Penelope Fitzgerald
1.094	3.76	The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen
1.088	3.24	The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by Michael Baigent
1.088	2.4	4 Blondes by Candace Bushnell
1.085	3.67	Angels & Demons by Dan Brown
1.084	3.04	The Gathering by Anne Enright
1.081	3.87	The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
1.075	3.21	A Monk Swimming by Malachy McCourt
1.074	3.5	More Die of Heartbreak by Saul Bellow
1.074	3.82	Another Marvelous Thing by Laurie Colwin
1.07	3.2	The Life All Around Me by Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
1.067	3.92	Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë
1.063	3.22	Belle Ruin by Martha Grimes
1.062	3.32	Liza of Lambeth by W. Somerset Maugham
1.059	3.43	Evening by Susan Minot
1.058	3.39	Getting Over It by Anna Maxted
1.057	3.87	Foucault's Pendulum by Umberto Eco
1.051	3.32	Surfacing by Margaret Atwood
1.051	3.33	Lust and Other Stories by Susan Minot
1.047	3.78	The Case for Israel by Alan Dershowitz
1.046	3.96	The Craft of Research by Wayne C. Booth
1.043	3.85	Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All by Allan Gurganus
1.042	3.82	The Children's Book by A. S. Byatt
1.041	3.31	Shadows on the Grass by Karen Blixen
1.038	3.49	The Burgermeister's Daughter: Scandal in a Sixteenth-Century German Town by Steven Ozment
1.038	3.3	Medieval English Verse (Classics) by Brian Stone
1.037	3.54	White Horses by Alice Hoffman
1.03	3.15	The Evidence Against Her: A Novel by Robb Forman Dew
1.027	3.48	Away by Amy Bloom
1.026	3.85	Theatre by W. Somerset Maugham
1.026	3.73	House of Sand and Fog by Andre Dubus III
1.026	3.74	Oh What a Paradise It Seems by John Cheever
1.025	3.55	The Scandalous Summer of Sissy LeBlanc: A Novel by Loraine Despres
1.025	3.24	The Girls' Guide to Hunting and Fishing by Melissa Bank
1.024	3.46	The Way of the World by William Congreve
1.024	3.11	The Wives of Bath: A Novel by Wendy Holden
1.022	3.1	Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay
1.022	3.5	Being Committed by Anna Maxted
1.021	3.44	Running in Heels by Anna Maxted
1.019	3.5	Texasville by Larry McMurtry
1.018	3.91	The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1.018	3.24	Life Before Man by Margaret Atwood
1.016	3.99	Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom by John O'Donohue
1.015	3.86	The Mapmakers by John Noble Wilford
1.011	3.07	The Ex Files: A Novel by Jane Moore
1.011	2.59	Switcheroo by Olivia Goldsmith
1.008	2.85	Bad Heir Day by Wendy Holden
1.006	3.46	Here on Earth by Alice Hoffman
1.005	3.19	Angel Landing by Alice Hoffman
1.005	3.83	Babel Tower by A. S. Byatt
1.002	3.4	Anything for Billy by Larry McMurtry
1.002	3.66	Ellen Foster by Kaye Gibbons
1	3.93	Family by Ian Frazier
0.999	3.69	Braving Home: Dispatches from the Underwater Town, the Lava-Side Inn, and Other Extreme Locales by Jake Halpern
0.998	3.78	My Uncle Oswald by Roald Dahl
0.998	3.44	Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life & Times by James Finn Garner
0.997	3.67	Paris to the Moon by Adam Gopnik
0.996	3.41	Monkeys by Susan Minot
0.994	3.22	The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
0.994	3.32	The Vicar of Wakefield by Oliver Goldsmith
0.992	3.24	The Starter Wife by Gigi Levangie Grazer
0.987	3.5	A Map of The World by Jane Hamilton
0.987	3.23	After This by Alice McDermott
0.986	3.62	A Severed Head by Iris Murdoch
0.986	3.6	Children Playing Before a Statue of Hercules by David Sedaris
0.986	4.23	Final Harvest: Poems by Emily Dickinson
0.982	3.68	Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn
0.981	3.38	Bridget Jones. The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding
0.979	3.32	Babyville by Jane Green
0.978	3.39	Becoming Madame Mao by Anchee Min
0.977	3.92	Before Women Had Wings by Connie May Fowler
0.977	4.06	Possession by A. S. Byatt
0.977	3.39	Saving Fish from Drowning by Amy Tan
0.976	3.22	Picturing Will by Ann Beattie
0.975	3.64	Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
0.975	3.35	I Was Told There'd Be Cake by Sloane Crosley
0.974	4.03	The First Man in Rome by Colleen McCullough
0.974	3.79	The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
0.973	3.19	Burning Bright by Tracy Chevalier
0.972	3.59	Undiscoverd Gyrl by Allison Burnett
0.972	3.16	The Scandal of the Season: A Novel by Sophie Gee
0.969	3.9	The Road Less Traveled by M. Scott Peck
0.969	2.97	The Jane Austen Book Club by Karen Joy Fowler
0.969	3.92	Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich
0.968	3.34	Equal Affections by David Leavitt
0.964	3.9	Happy All the Time by Laurie Colwin
0.963	3.69	Saturday by Ian McEwan

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