Customer Reviews

The Chinese Ginger Jars: The Courageous Human Story Of An American Missionary Family In China During The Japanese Occupation And

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I am the grandson of Myra Scovel, the author of this book.

I would like people contemplating a purchase of this book to know that this book is in the public domain, and thus available to them for free. It was copyrighted in 1962, and American books written between 1923 and 1963 had to have their copyright renewed 28 years after publication, or, as what happened with my grandmother's memoir, the text becomes part of the public domain.

The Internet Archive has made my grandmother's book available for free online. Amazon does not permit me to include a URL in a review, but using any of the popular search engines, you can search for "Internet Archive" (use quotes), and, once there, type this book's title into their search engine in order to find my grandmother's book on it. There, you can download copies in whatever format is convenient for you, at no cost to you whatsoever.

Or, you could of course pay Kessinger Publishing $23 to have them send you a bound print copy. I'd ask you to bear in mind that my grandmother's descendents do not see one penny from Kessinger's sales, since no royalties are due on public domain texts. Nor was Kessinger Publishing my grandmother's original publisher.

Frankly, I would rather you have the opportunity to read my grandmother's memoir for free rather, than for you to pay $23 of profit to these people who have repurposed the public domain for their own profit. As a fan and proponent of the Creative Commons and the public domain, I find that business model rather offensive.

I found this book at a used book store. What a warm and enlightening story! Her writing style is light and easy, but she is adept at communicating a full range of experiences and emotion. She processes her doubts and experiences in light of her faith, making it tangible, human, and relatable. There's not an ounce of preachiness in it. She just sounds like a phenomenally interesting and delightful woman who loves her family and faces whatever God may send her way with both practicality, humility, a dash of spunk, and the heart of a mom.

The book content is great: well written, progresses naturally and fast enough to keep interest, makes one feel that the author is a real person with whom the reader can easily identify. A book to be shared with joy, but the cover is not at all attractive and did not meet my standards to be used as a special gift--which was one of the reasons I bought it.