The first question my parents asked each other when considering the health of their unborn son was, “Should we stop smoking two packs a day?” (Morning sickness helped my mother decide.) Not so with novelist Jonathan Safron Foer, author of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Foer’s first concern when he knew he had a kid on the way was along the lines of, “Should I feed him Tyson’s chicken?” That qualm led to one of the most self-righteous books of the season: a Michael Pollan–style tome aimed at youngish folks called Eating Animals, in which Foer retraces the steps of guilty carnivores before him, documenting the poor treatment of animals at the hands of corporate farming, the environmental impact of cow farts, and all the rest. Will this one be the one that changes the country’s collective mind? Give Foer an hour of your time, and then tell me if the Fuddruckers on 7th ain’t just where you head next.

FOER SPEAKS AT 7 P.M. AT 6TH & I HISTORIC SYNAGOGUE, 600 I ST. NW. $10. (202) 408-3100.