A reader writes of her daughter’s high school reading list (summer reading or the syllabus for next year [which in her town means in about a month] – I’m not sure which), which includes The Red Tent. Well, they have a choice. Either The Red Tent or A Prayer for Owen Meany. I’ve never read either, and I know some who love the latter and find it spiritually okay. Here’s a brief thread we ran here on the former.

Hint to Catholic schools: Power and the Glory. Silence. Wise Blood, for the AP classes. Lots of good books out there that come out of Catholic sensibilities that are provocative and interesting. Try ’em. You might like ’em.

(I’ve taught them all in an "honors" religion seminar I created. Students liked them very much. Although one student stormed into my class the day after she read the climactic act of Silence (no spoilers here! Readers know to what I refer) and said, "I threw the book across the room, I was so mad at him for doing that!" A good starting point for a discussion. "Oh, really? And you really think you would make a different choice?")