Too Controversial for Bookshelves?

About the book: Set in a future America that has turned into an anti-feminist fascist state, the book tells the story of Kate, a handmaid who lives a life of sexual servitude but falls in love with a man who is not her assigned partner.

Excerpt: "'I was coming to find you,' he says, breathes, almost into my ear. I want to reach up, taste his skin, he makes me hungry. His fingers move, feeling my arm under the nightgown sleeve, as if his hand won't listen to reason. It's to good to be touched by someone, to be felt so greedily, to feel so greedy."

The controversy: A Judson, Tex., school superintendent banned the novel from an advanced placement English curriculum after a parent complained that it was sexually explicit and offensive to Christians. In doing so, the superintendent overruled the recommendation by a committee of teachers, students, and parents. The committee appealed the decision to the school board, which overruled the superintendent in 2006.