Alex Woodard

This is a piece of fiction that is based on real life situations and scientific theories and principles related to farming and pesticides. I can't believe I was fortunate enough to have stumbled upon this book through Goodreads Giveaways and fortunate enough to win a copy. I say that because this story is absolutely personal to me and mirrors many things in my life including growing up on a family farm in the fifth generation, being surrounded by pesticides and chemicals constantly, and having both parents die in later life from leukemia and lymphoma, respectively. Not to mention a sister who survived breast cancer. Long ago it dawned on me that my parents' deaths were almost certainly linked to their years of farming and exposure to pesticides.

This book is about Jake and his wife, who live on a large family farm of about five generations. Jake's great, great grandfather was a Native American and his spirit haunts Jake, his father and his brother with terrifying visions. Jake has many health problems, all of which are seen regularly by the local physician, Mark. Jake and his wife have recently lost their young daughter to leukemia. Jakes' burdens have become too overwhelming and the book opens with his attempted suicide. Jake then becomes Mark's patient, and the two develop a friendship, which is truly a lifeline to Jake. Jake's wife, it turns out, has not been able to accept their daughter's death and still pretends that she is alive and near her most of the time. Jake's parents are both ill, too--his father with Parkinson's disease and his mother with Alzheimer's. Mark launches into research on the overwhelming cases of disease he is presented with in this rural area and certain connections start to become clear. Farmers have unwittingly been spewing poison onto their crops and soil with the chemical pesticides that manufacturers have been pushing on them for decades with (unfounded) assurances of safety. The results are disastrous and we are experiencing them even now, in real time.

The Afterword was also fascinating as it further explains the origin of the idea for this book and gives more information on the subject. There is also a References section listing books and links to articles on the research on this topic. This additional information and resources was unexpected and very much appreciated.… (lisätietoja)

"What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness, but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white of whether they be black."

Well, while I was reading this book, For the Sender
Love Letters from Vietnam by Alex Woodard published by Hay House in 2015 I thought that these words are immensely important also in 2016 and so I decided to start my review with them

One of the most beautiful, touching and complex book I have read. At first it was a bit chaotic to enter in the story, I got lost I admit it.
Being italian it was for this reason.
Woodard is extremely clear and enchantingly poetic and inspired.


Not only: this book is pure poetry and optimism although people described here substantially have touched with their hands what meant hell and horror.

The hell of wars, not just the Vietnam one, the utilization of substances able to ruin forever health and body, see at the voices napalm and orange if taken in consideration the Vietnam war, the horror of what it meant this war. Veterans later co-lived and are still co-living with nightmares sometimes too horrible for being forgotten or just kept close in a distant corner of the memory.


But what meant for a Vietnam veteran that war? Nightmares, an abyss of perdition, desperation and addictions, sensations, horrible ones, impossible to explain. A continuous fights with internal demons, sometimes unable to return at a pacific surface, for being defeated.

These wars means everyday a lot of suicides, or in the best conditions a lot of addictions and desperation. Drugs, alcohol.
For forgetting.
Forgetting what?
The sensation of a future that could have been different with much more happy and smiling days if only that eyes wouldn't have seen, felt all of that horror.

The story the one of Jennifer and his dad and these letters sent to him in the past and in the future and vice-versa. His dad unfortunately later would have lost his life once returned from the Vietnam war. A different man, a different dad.

He discussed with his mom, later he decided of leaving them alone, continuing to fight his personal demons without too much company.

Lately he died, killed. Killed by his same irascibility, killed by who he became in the while: a product of the Vietnam War. An unhappy man with a lot of internal conflicts.

The book is stunningly beauty, with a girl, Jennifer asking to her dad a lot of questions about his life, why he left all of them alone, why this end...

Jennifer will write to her dad that once he died, she started to take a lot of anti-depressant but she added she didn't feel anything. And she wanted to feel some feelings, she wanted to feel life and to be able to hate or return to love his dad. It took a lot of time and a great elaboration before to establish a contact with his dad, now in the other dimension.

His dad will travel in various worlds and dimensions and times for giving answers at questions big like a house.

Trust me when I tell you that many passages are extremely beautiful and moving.

Truly inspired, the message, the main one left by Jennifer's dad is to love and forgive. Living in the moment, being good people and trying to do the best in this life.

Demons can be defeated.

Many examples from other wars....Once a soldier started to be affectionate at a dog, badly injured. He took care of him, but he couldn't bring the animal with him because not allowed. Well that dog passed through the desert for reaching his new owner. 70 miles of distance. Later the two reunited in the USA.
Pet therapy through dogs and horses, one of the most powerful strategy for bring back optimism in people badly injured in body and soul and greatly devastated.

The book through songs and letters will also tell the various decades from Vietnam to the departures of JFK and his brother Bob. The author tells he was the one who was shaking Robert Francis Kennedy hand at the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel when brutally injured. Of course he wasn't the author but it's a metaphor for saying: "I was one of the million of people trusting you. I believed in you."

But there are polemics also regarding the most recent ObamaCare because according to the author it brought thanks to a certain mechanism war veterans at not affording anymore as in the past all cures they needed.

This book is a trip through history, life, death, various dimensions, sufferance, and it's the promise of a better future passing also through the most terrible experience and it is encouraging.

It's a dialogue: a dialogue between a daughter who wants discover and find herself thanks to this dialogue with his dad. So, although dead, she started to write him letters. Apparently no one can answer anymore because the person is in the Other World. But there is a force, a force called love that will permit to the soldier and dad to send to her daughter truly beautiful answers thanks also to the most beautiful communication existing in this world: the heart.


Although dead, mr Fullen can't forget his daughter, can't forget his life, can't forget his adoration for her. And can't forget, when, once, everything was just simply perfect.

Fullen will always encourage his daughter to find herself, to discover herself, and to be good. Good with herself and good when interacting with the rest of people. Life means growing up everyday. It's a perennial growth and a perennial learning. No one should never stop to learn, because just understanding other conditions we can understand our world and all the rest of humanity.

This book is the perfect gift for someone in sufferance because extremely positive, touching but also for everyone else.

The book is accompanied by a CD with the various songs included in the book.

I strongly, strongly strongly suggest this book to everyone!

I thanks NetGalley for presenting me the chance of reading this book.… (lisätietoja)

"What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness, but love and wisdom, and compassion toward one another, and a feeling of justice toward those who still suffer within our country, whether they be white of whether they be black."

Well, while I was reading this book, For the Sender
Love Letters from Vietnam by Alex Woodard published by Hay House in 2015 I thought that these words are immensely important also in 2016 and so I decided to start my review with them

One of the most beautiful, touching and complex book I have read. At first it was a bit chaotic to enter in the story, I got lost I admit it.
Being italian it was for this reason.
Woodard is extremely clear and enchantingly poetic and inspired.


Not only: this book is pure poetry and optimism although people described here substantially have touched with their hands what meant hell and horror.

The hell of wars, not just the Vietnam one, the utilization of substances able to ruin forever health and body, see at the voices napalm and orange if taken in consideration the Vietnam war, the horror of what it meant this war. Veterans later co-lived and are still co-living with nightmares sometimes too horrible for being forgotten or just kept close in a distant corner of the memory.


But what meant for a Vietnam veteran that war? Nightmares, an abyss of perdition, desperation and addictions, sensations, horrible ones, impossible to explain. A continuous fights with internal demons, sometimes unable to return at a pacific surface, for being defeated.

These wars means everyday a lot of suicides, or in the best conditions a lot of addictions and desperation. Drugs, alcohol.
For forgetting.
Forgetting what?
The sensation of a future that could have been different with much more happy and smiling days if only that eyes wouldn't have seen, felt all of that horror.

The story the one of Jennifer and his dad and these letters sent to him in the past and in the future and vice-versa. His dad unfortunately later would have lost his life once returned from the Vietnam war. A different man, a different dad.

He discussed with his mom, later he decided of leaving them alone, continuing to fight his personal demons without too much company.

Lately he died, killed. Killed by his same irascibility, killed by who he became in the while: a product of the Vietnam War. An unhappy man with a lot of internal conflicts.

The book is stunningly beauty, with a girl, Jennifer asking to her dad a lot of questions about his life, why he left all of them alone, why this end...

Jennifer will write to her dad that once he died, she started to take a lot of anti-depressant but she added she didn't feel anything. And she wanted to feel some feelings, she wanted to feel life and to be able to hate or return to love his dad. It took a lot of time and a great elaboration before to establish a contact with his dad, now in the other dimension.

His dad will travel in various worlds and dimensions and times for giving answers at questions big like a house.

Trust me when I tell you that many passages are extremely beautiful and moving.

Truly inspired, the message, the main one left by Jennifer's dad is to love and forgive. Living in the moment, being good people and trying to do the best in this life.

Demons can be defeated.

Many examples from other wars....Once a soldier started to be affectionate at a dog, badly injured. He took care of him, but he couldn't bring the animal with him because not allowed. Well that dog passed through the desert for reaching his new owner. 70 miles of distance. Later the two reunited in the USA.
Pet therapy through dogs and horses, one of the most powerful strategy for bring back optimism in people badly injured in body and soul and greatly devastated.

The book through songs and letters will also tell the various decades from Vietnam to the departures of JFK and his brother Bob. The author tells he was the one who was shaking Robert Francis Kennedy hand at the kitchen of the Ambassador Hotel when brutally injured. Of course he wasn't the author but it's a metaphor for saying: "I was one of the million of people trusting you. I believed in you."

But there are polemics also regarding the most recent ObamaCare because according to the author it brought thanks to a certain mechanism war veterans at not affording anymore as in the past all cures they needed.

This book is a trip through history, life, death, various dimensions, sufferance, and it's the promise of a better future passing also through the most terrible experience and it is encouraging.

It's a dialogue: a dialogue between a daughter who wants discover and find herself thanks to this dialogue with his dad. So, although dead, she started to write him letters. Apparently no one can answer anymore because the person is in the Other World. But there is a force, a force called love that will permit to the soldier and dad to send to her daughter truly beautiful answers thanks also to the most beautiful communication existing in this world: the heart.


Although dead, mr Fullen can't forget his daughter, can't forget his life, can't forget his adoration for her. And can't forget, when, once, everything was just simply perfect.

Fullen will always encourage his daughter to find herself, to discover herself, and to be good. Good with herself and good when interacting with the rest of people. Life means growing up everyday. It's a perennial growth and a perennial learning. No one should never stop to learn, because just understanding other conditions we can understand our world and all the rest of humanity.

This book is the perfect gift for someone in sufferance because extremely positive, touching but also for everyone else.

The book is accompanied by a CD with the various songs included in the book.

I strongly, strongly strongly suggest this book to everyone!

I thanks NetGalley for presenting me the chance of reading this book.… (lisätietoja)

FOR THE SENDER is a fairly quick, poetic read. Which is to say that the word-smithing is very good.

I highly recommend this book for book clubs. I think there would be a lot to talk about. There's the whole searching for something theme, as well as the other topics that are possible. Viet Nam vets versus our current collection of veterans of foreign wars... and whether society is doing all it should for them.

Finally there the whole construct of the book that could be discussed. The usage of letters. The shift in the focus of the storytelling. Whether is a 'deep' read or maudlin.

This book even comes with a CD!

So much to discuss. This is a layered read that just seems ripe for Book Club picking.

~5th book of 2016
~review copy… (lisätietoja)