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
1.2913.32The Piano Teacher by Elfriede Jelinek
1.2793.05Celtic Magic by D.J. Conway
1.2193.37The Bridges of Madison County by Robert James Waller
1.1773.91The Official Preppy Handbook by Lisa Birnbach
1.1763.05For Us, The Living: A Comedy of Customs by Robert A. Heinlein
1.1473.86Moby Dick by Herman Melville
1.1413.8Doctors by Erich Segal
1.1323.29Life's Little Instruction Book by H. Jackson Brown
1.1193.62Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
1.1173.17Digital Fortress by Dan Brown
1.1093.42The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne
1.1013.51The Gate House by Nelson DeMille
1.0993.25Bitch: In Praise of Difficult Women by Elizabeth Wurtzel
1.0973.67Without a Map: A Memoir by Meredith Hall
1.0882.44 Blondes by Candace Bushnell
1.0863.68A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers
1.0853.64Armchair Economist: Economics & Everyday Life by Steven E. Landsburg
1.0743.83French for Cats by Henry Beard
1.0693.8Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson by Camille Paglia
1.0653.74Eat More, Weigh Less: Dr. Dean Ornish's Life Choice Program for Losing Weight Safely While Eating Abundantly by Dean Ornish
1.0643.77Not without my daughter by Betty Mahmoody
1.0622.99Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes
1.0584Cunt: A Declaration of Independence by Inga Muscio
1.0534.31Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace
1.0493.33The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger
1.0493.9Beloved by Toni Morrison
1.0443.78Sleepers by Lorenzo Carcaterra
1.0393.69Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander
1.0373.44Garden of Rama by Arthur C. Clarke
1.032.82The Happy Hooker: My Own Story by Xaviera Hollander
1.0293.58Valley of the Dolls by Jacqueline Susann
1.0243.68PHP and MySQL Web Development by Luke Welling
1.023.84The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
1.0193.4A Spy in the House of Love by Anaïs Nin
1.0183.91The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
1.013.67In Our Time by Ernest Hemingway
1.013.56Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld
1.0073.72The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
1.0033.08Sneaky Uses for Everyday Things: How to Turn a Penny into a Radio, Make a Flood Alarm with an Aspirin, Change Milk into Plastic, Extract Water and Electricity ... a TV with Your Ring, and Other Amazing Feats by Cy Tymony
1.0033.79Colony by Anne Rivers Siddons
13.8Food Court Druids, Cherohonkees and Other Creatures Unique to the Republic by Robert Lanham
0.9983.44Politically Correct Bedtime Stories: Modern Tales for Our Life & Times by James Finn Garner
0.9983.61The Children's Hospital by Chris Adrian
0.9963.6Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
0.9943.22The Nanny Diaries by Emma McLaughlin
0.9893.54Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence
0.9893.96Stranger in a strange land by Robert A. Heinlein
0.9823.94Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
0.9823.48The Class by Erich Segal
0.9823.68Me: Stories of My Life by Katharine Hepburn
0.9813.89Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Jacobs
0.9813.89Dave Barry Slept Here: A Sort of History of the United States by Dave Barry
0.9793.51Shopgirl by Steve Martin
0.9763.89Voices of A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
0.9763.81Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife
0.9753.64Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding
0.9733.61Dolores Claiborne by Stephen King
0.9733.57Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions by Christian Lander
0.9713.85A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J. Gaines
0.9663.55Bonjour Tristesse by Françoise Sagan
0.9633.81The Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe
0.9623.41Bobos In Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There by David Brooks
0.9624.15The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran
0.963.31The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook by Joshua Piven
0.963.08The Spy Who Loved Me by Ian Fleming
0.9594.16The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
0.9593.85Interview with the Vampire by Anne Rice
0.9583.99Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson
0.9583.93I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
0.9573.39Little Altars Everywhere by Rebecca Wells
0.9573.88White Oleander by Janet Fitch
0.9553.63Xenocide by Orson Scott Card
0.9534.17The Book of the SubGenius : The Sacred Teachings of J.R. 'Bob' Dobbs by J. R. "Bob" Dobbs
0.953.63On Her Majesty's Secret Service by Ian Fleming
0.9494.09Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
0.9483.88Oathblood by Mercedes Lackey
0.9473.54Casino Royale by Ian Fleming
0.9463.58Republican Party Reptile by P. J. O'Rourke
0.9463.54The Virgin Blue by Tracy Chevalier
0.9443.48Almost French: Love and a New Life in Paris by Sarah Turnbull
0.9443.78It Doesn't Take a Hero by Norman Schwarzkopf
0.9433.49Sex, Art, and American Culture: Essays by Camille Paglia
0.9383.94The Aeneid by Virgil
0.9373.89The World of Late Antiquity, AD 150-750 by Peter Brown
0.9363.58Dreaming In Code by Scott Rosenberg
0.9353.67The Birth of Venus by Sarah Dunant
0.9343.84The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test by Tom Wolfe
0.9344.2Black Lamb and Grey Falcon by Rebecca West
0.9333.32I Don't Know How She Does It by Allison Pearson
0.9324.01Foundation by Isaac Asimov
0.9314.07And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
0.9314.01Bunnicula by Deborah Howe
0.933.8Red Dragon by Thomas Harris
0.9293.73Winds of Fury by Mercedes Lackey
0.9284.1The Divine Comedy, Vol. I: Hell by Dante Alighieri
0.9274.07Anne Frank: Beyond the Diary - A Photographic Remembrance by Ruud van der Rol
0.9274.17501 French Verbs by Christopher Kendris
0.9263.78March by Geraldine Brooks
0.9263.58Wiccan Mysteries: Ancient Origins & Teachings by Raven Grimassi
0.9264.12Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson
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