Pretentious and Overrated Books
Discover the most pretentious and overrated books that don't live up to the hype. See which acclaimed titles made our list of overhyped reads—you might be surprised!
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On Beauty
by Zadie Smith
Struggling with a stale marriage and the misguided passions of his three adult children, long-suffering art professor Howard Belsey finds his family life thrown into …
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Memoirs of a Geisha
by Arthur Golden
Because her mother is dying and her father old, Chiyo, nine, is sold to a wealthy geisha house in Gion where she learns her trade …
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Shantaram
by Gregory David Roberts
The story of a man who escapes from a maximum security facility in Australia and arrives in Bombay, crossroads of the underworld, where he works …
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The Time Traveler's Wife
by Audrey Niffenegger
A Magical love story that is as sad as it is joyous.
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Everything Is Illuminated
by Jonathan Safran Foer
With only a yellowing photograph in hand, a young man -- also named Jonathan Safran Foer -- sets out to find the woman who may …
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Special Topics in Calamity Physics
by Marisha Pessl
The mesmerizing bestseller that combines the storytelling gifts of Donna Tartt and the suspense of Alfred Hitchcock—A New York Times Ten Best Book of the …
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The Bone People
by Keri Hulme
Kerewin, a part-Maori painter living in self-exile, is drawn out of her isolation by a mute boy who is cast up on a beach, the …