My Year of Meats - Ruth L. Ozeki

If you happen to be an omnivore that is completely uninterested in knowing what happened to your steak or pork chop before it hit your table, this may not be the book for you.

From the back cover: When documentarian Jane Takagi-Little finally lands a job producing My American Wife!,  a Japanese television show sponsored by an American meat-exporting business, she discovered some unsavory truths about love, fertility, and a hormone called DES. Meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, Akiko Ueno, a beleaguered Japanese housewife, struggles to escape from her child-craving husband. When Jane's and Akiki's lives intersect, the deepest concerns of our time are illuminated: how the past informs the present and how we live and live in an ever-shrinking world.

So, whoa. Seriously, as I stated above, if you don't want to know anything about how meat gets from the farm to the table, this is not a book you should pick up. If you think eating organic is only for hippies and soft hearted liberals, well you're wrong, and this book is also not for you. It is definitely fiction for feminists, which I adore to the very core of my being. I also enjoy fiction that can be entertaining and educational without being overly obvious about it. The writing shows Ozeki did some seriously in depth research--she even includes her resources in the back of the book. I am not one to panic over much of anything, though I'm slightly paranoid about getting sick (thank you, Stephen King). We should definitely panic. There are things to panic about. And we are eating them. Willingly chewing up and swallowing un-prescribed antibiotics and hormones. We're setting ourselves up for an epidemic, which most of the population refuses to acknowledge. My parents think I am ridiculous for only consuming organic meat and dairy, but I think they are ridiculous for ignoring signs that are definitely right in front of us. This is a book about exactly that--the research is there, the science hands us the nasty truth.... We shrug, and shovel more crap into our mouths.

I could continue to get even more preachy, but I will end with saying that the novel speaks volumes both culturally and socially. Ozeki writes well, spinning a clear story that is funny and shocking. It will definitely inspire mindful eating, if you're already open to the concept.