The Gist: Good afternoon VegNews Book Clubbers! It is the final week of reading My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki, which we have now finished. Also, it is the week of Thanksgiving, meaning a short week for many of us, so instead of wrapping up our conversation this Friday, I will post the wrap up on Monday, November 29. That will give us a week off next week, and then we will begin to discuss December's book, Quantum Wellness by Kathy Freston. In addition, the next three books for the first quarter of 2011 will be announced next Monday, along with the wrap up. I'm looking forward to a great New Year with the VegNews Book Club!

Back to My Year of Meats, a lot takes place in the last several chapters of the novel. Jane is off to Colorado while pregnant to film a slaughterhouse for the next episode of My American Wife! The wife of the ranch's owner, Bunny Dunn, is Jane's cover, due to her being the typical American wife—blonde and big busted. Bunny has a five-year-old daughter, Rose, who rubs Jane and the rest of the crew the wrong way. They later realize that the little girl is already developing as a woman, which is obviously incredibly early. The reason for it happening is because Gale, the son of the ranch's owner, and operator, is feeding the cattle illegal DES as well as many other terrible things, such as other hormones, dead cattle, and even the excrement. The hormones being used have poisoned the little girl, causing her to go through puberty very early.

When Jane and the crew go to the film the slaughterhouse, it is very intense, and they get great footage. Unfortunately, Jane is knocked unconscious after witnessing the slaughter of a cow, due to the commotion. When she comes to, she finds out that she has lost her baby. She blames herself, even though the main reason for its death was due to her abnormal uterus.

Akiko also finds herself in a hospital after fainting from loss of blood, due to her husband raping her. While there, she realizes that she is pregnant, which inspires her to begin a new life. She finds out that her husband will be in the US until a certain time, and she decides to leave the night before he gets back, and she heads to New York. She contacts Jane on her way who meets her, and helps her to get her new life started, by introducing her to two of the families featured in My American Wife!—the Boudreoux family in Louisiana, and the lesbian couple, Lara and Dyann. Akiko decides to settle in New England, in a small town close to the two women.

Jane takes some time to deal with the death of her baby, but then sets her mind to editing the footage saved from the slaughterhouse, making it into a feature documentary. At first, she thinks that no one would want to see it, but after sending a copy to Bunny Dunn, the media has a feeding frenzy to get their hands on the tape. Jane is able to sell the film, giving her some hope that the problems of the meat industry will be exposed.

The Discussion: Here are three discussion points to help get the conversation started. I look forward to hearing from you!

1. Do you think this book is affective in teaching the readers the importance of vegetarianism? In other words, if you were not yet a vegetarian/vegan, would you have been affected by this novel? Why or why not?

2. In Chapter 12, Jane says,"If we can't act on knowledge, then we can't survive without ignorance. So we cultivate the ignorance, go to great lengths to celebrate it, even." Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?

3. Violence is clearly a theme in the novel. What parallels did you draw between the depictions of violence toward women and violence toward animals?

The Assignment: Please read the part one and two of Quantum Wellness by Kathy Freston for our discussion on Monday, December 6. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

~VN Book Club Hostess Lyndsay Orwig

The Summary: Good afternoon VegNews Book Clubbers, and welcome to yet another Friday! We are quickly coming to an end of My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki, which I have found to be a very good read. I hope you're enjoying it too!

This week, we discussed how culture shapes a person, by comparing Jane and Akiko. Also, I asked you what you would cook for My American Wife! if you were chosen to host the show, and I appreciate those who participated. It sounds like we're all already in the mood for a Thanksgiving feast!

I know it's a busy week next week, but we will be discussing the rest of the book beginning Monday, and I will wrap it all up the following Monday. Have a great weekend!

~VN Book Club Hostess Lyndsay Orwig

The Gist: Good afternoon everyone! It is the third week of reading My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki, and we're really getting into the storyline, specifically with the two main characters, Jane and Akiko. Jane has found out that she is pregnant, even though she thought that she was unable to conceive due to a deformed uterus, that she believes was the result of her mother taking the pills containing DES when she was pregnant. At first, Jane wants to get an abortion, but decides against it, because she realizes that she really wants a child. The father, Sloan, also tells her that he wants to be a part of her and the baby's lives, making their relationship stronger.

Jane has also taken more risks with My American Wife!, which has greatly angered Joicho Ueno, Akiko's husband, who is the representative of BEEF-EX. First, she features an Indiana family who cooks lamb chop instead of beef. Ueno is very upset by this due to the fact that Japan gets most of their lamb from Australia, and not the US. Second, Jane features a lesbian vegetarian couple, which completely sets Ueno off, and Jane almost loses her job. Luckily, she doesn't, and she decides to feature a slaughter house in the next episode, but hides the fact from Ueno that she will be using the episode to expose the meat industry.

Speaking of meat, Jane is finding out much more about the industry, and the terrible conditions within it. She finds out a lot about it through the lesbian couple, but she also does a lot of her own research. It seems as though she is on the edge of going vegetarian, but she admits that being pregnant makes her want meat, so she buys organic meat instead.

Over in Japan, Akiko is facing much more physical abuse from her husband, Joicho Ueno. The worst happens when she connects with Jane after the episode about the lesbian couple. The episode makes her realize that she does not want to be with Joicho, but does want a child of her own. She gets ahold of a fax number for Jane and writes her a private letter asking for advice about leaving her abusive husband, as well as asking about the problems with meat. Jane writes her back urging her to leave her husband, but Joicho discovers the letters, and beats Akiko, and even rapes her. That's where chapter 9 ends, on a decidedly sad note.

The Discussion: Here are two discussion points to help get the conversation started. I look forward to hearing from you!

1. Although Jane and Akiko are both of Japanese descent, they are very different. How much do you think culture takes part in shaping a person?

2. The lesbian couple cooked pasta primavera for the episode of My American Wife! If you were on the show, what would you cook, and why?

The Assignment: Please read the rest of the book for our discussion on Monday, November 22. We will start our discussion on that day, and I will wrap up on Monday, November 29 due to the Thanksgiving holiday.

~VN Book Club Hostess Lyndsay Orwig

The Summary: Happy Friday! We are at the end of the second week of reading My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki. We are learning more about the two main characters, Jane and Akiko, who are both very different people, but share some similiarities.

I asked about The Pillow Book excerpts, as well as if you think Jane or Akiko will eventually become vegetarian. I appreciate the thoughtful comments from Kim. It seems like Jane will most likely become veg, due to the fact that she's learning more about the meat industry while working for My American Wife!, and what she's learning is unflattering, at best. I look forward to seeing if my guess is correct. Have a good weekend everyone!

~VN Book Club Hostess Lyndsay Orwig

The Gist: Good afternoon VegNews Book Clubbers! It is now November, and we have begun to read the novel, My Year of Meats by Ruth L. Ozeki. The book has two main characters—Jane Takagi-Little and Akiko Ueno. Jane is an American documentary filmmaker with an American father and a Japanese mother. At the start of the book, she has been offered a job to run a television series called My American Wife!, which documents "real" American women, their families, and the meat they cook for them, in order to bring the American Heartland to Japanese women—Akiko being one of them. The shows only sponsor is the Beef Export and Trade Syndicate (BEEF-EX), who has its sights set on Asia. Hence, the new show.

We're only three chapters in so far, but so far the narration has gone back and forth between Jane's point of view to Akiko's, who lives in Japan, and whose husband is the representative of the ad agency in charge of marketing the meats. Akiko's husband has pretty much ordered Akiko to watch the show and to participate by cooking the meat recipes displayed on the show. Akiko is extremely unhappy, and her health is a reflection of it—she's bone thin and cannot menstruate. Her husband, Joichi (or "John"), wants her to put meat, literally, on her bones so that they can have a baby together.

Already, there are connections between the two main characters, particularly with The Pillow Book—Sei Shonagon's book of observations and musings. It is mainly a diary of sorts. They also both seem to be unhappy with their lives at the moment.

The Discussion: I am really enjoying this book so far! I have always been more of a fiction reader myself, because I love to lose myself while reading, and fiction helps me to do just that. Here are two discussion points to help get the conversation started. I look forward to hearing from you!

1. What do you think of the two main characters so far? Are there any similarities between the two? How do they complement each other?

2. It's sad, but My American Wife! sounds an awful lot like current reality TV shows on air. What are your thoughts on reality television? Do you think it shows a negative portrayal of American society?

The Assignment: Please read chapters 4 to 6 for our discussion on Monday, November 8.

~VN Book Club Hostess Lyndsay Orwig