Whimsical Wednesday

Welcome my Wonderful Wyverns to Whimsical Wednesday. Our Gem this evening is not one Gem, but a bag of assorted stones of all shapes and sizes for all types of uses: healing, strength, support, dreaming. This is Gem Maker Carolyn Brown’s “The Banty House”.

Carolyn Brown has taken the lovely memories of her own grandmother’s stories and gift of storytelling and given us the gift of this tale. A tale of three elderly sisters who love each other deeply and unbreakably. Kate, Connie and Betsy have been raised by their Mama in the Banty House. Mama wrote the rules they live by decades earlier when, to make a living for herself and her three daughters, she turned the large home in Rooster, Texas into an upscale brothel called “The Banty House”. She had named it for the men who came their, acting like little Banty Roosters, cocky and strutting.

Mama had ever only loved one man, being herself, a quarter black, she knew he could not keep his job and so refused to marry him, but loved the three daughters she had by him ferociously, she made sure they grew up to be good hearted women. The story of Mama is a lovely one in and of itself, for this my dear Book Dragons, the book should be read, but there is so, so much more.

The Sisters go each week to have their hair done at a salon and Connie goes out to have a cigarette when she meets a shy young woman on the bench outside. She is young, skinny and very pregnant. Connie looks her over and they talk for a bit and she decides there and then that Mama’s Rule #1 needs to be exercised: “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing so some people have show hospitality to angels without knowing it.” Heb. 13:2

The Sisters agree and take her in. What should have been for a day or two turns into a week. This book is at it’s heart, a love story. Not a romance, although there is romance in it. No, my Fellow Book Dragons, a love story. Love between sisters, strangers, friends and others. It is one of the most beautiful, funny, interesting books I have ever read.

If you are feeling down, discouraged, depressed or even bored at this point, this book is for you. It is coming on the market May 26th, 2020. You can pre-order it now. I would suggest doing so, because this is going to fly from the shelves!

Make sure you are also answering the daily question! I will be revealing another item in the basket in the next 48 hours so be paying attention! Until tomorrow, I remain, your humble Book Dragon,

Drakon T. Longwitten

I received a copy of this book as part of #JackiesFavoriteBookClubFriends and the Author #CarolynBrown . My opinions are my own.