In Ordinary Time: Thoughts on Family, Faith, and the Everyday Holy, Annie B. Jones delivers a beautifully written, quietly profound collection of essays that invites readers to find meaning in the rhythms of everyday life. With her signature warmth and insight Jones reflects on moments that are often overlooked: slow Sunday afternoons, quiet griefs, gentle joys, and the sacredness found in the ordinary.

What makes this book resonant is its honest and intimate voice. Jones doesn’t preach or pretend to have all the answers. Instead, she walks beside the reader, offering stories from her life—stories of loss, friendship, spiritual wrestling, and small but significant transformation. Her essays are both tender and wise, revealing how holiness isn’t reserved for holidays or mountaintop moments, but exists in laundry, texts from loved ones, and lingering conversations at the dinner table.

This book will especially speak to those who feel caught in a season of in-between or are craving a slower, more intentional life. It feels like a hug for the soul and a gentle reminder that ordinary doesn’t mean unimportant—it means human, shared, and deeply meaningful.

I really enjoyed this essay collection. Some essays were stronger than others (very typical for these types of books), but I felt that all of them worked well together. I especially loved the essay about sister/brother relationships. I'd def recommend picking this one up if you need a comforting book.

"These are the women who know the present-day version of me, and I am glad for them, I fought for them."
"Love what you love, and let other people see it, so they can love it, too."

I loved this book so much. Listening to Annie's thoughts really resonated with me in different parts of my life. I listened to the audiobook and was a little sad when it was over. What a beautiful read, I will definitely be purchasing a physical copy.

Being a fan of the podcast From the Front Porch, I couldn’t wait to read this collection of essays by Annie B Jones! The chapters offer a glimpse into her world, her background, and her outlook on life in general. The book felt light, but each chapter left me reflecting on my own experiences.

This book was the perfect read for this busy, and often overstimulating, season of life we’re in. It’s not a long book overall, and the easily digestible chapters are each basically an essay on a given topic.

To give you an idea of the topics at hand, they are broken up into the following sections: Staying Friends, Staying Put, Staying Faithful, Staying Grounded, and Staying You.

The author is a married Southerner who owns a bookstore. She has no kids, but does have a podcast, a pool, and a dog. She has struggled with seeing other friends leave, and she has struggled with the religion she grew up in. But she loves so much of the rest… her husband, her parents, her job. Even when it’s hard. And that’s what she’s trying to celebrate with this book… the day to day stuff that really makes up the bulk of our lives.

I highlighted a lot of quotes from this one, so it crushes me that I can’t quote an advanced reader copy. Of course, it probably helps that the author and I are close in age and both love books – I’m bound to “get” a lot of the pop culture references she uses, right? – but beyond that, the ideas of just loving your life wherever you’re at are bound to resonate with others, as well.

If you’re the kind of person who can enjoy a good sunset, or a good line in a book you’re reading… or if you’re actively striving to be more like that kind of person… this book is for you.

Annie B Jones is a gift. Her writing is beautiful, thoughtful and honest, and this quiet book about staying put would be absolutely perfect for so many different readers. I hope she keeps writing so that I can continue to read her wisdom and sell it to our customers.

Written by a beloved bookstore owner and podcaster, this is a lovely mediation on staying–staying in a place, a relationship, a faith, and more. This collection is earnest and refreshing, elevating the ordinary and mundane moments of life. Some essays resonated with me more than others, but this was an enjoyable read overall.

Annie Jones reflects on her decision to remain in her small town. She discusses running a bookstore, nurturing long-term relationships, and embracing a faith that has evolved with time. Her writing is warm, relatable, and often humorous. And she invites readers to find meaning in the everyday moments that define our lives.

Annie B Jones was already a gift to the bookish community in so many ways -- adding an actual book to her resume was just icing on the cake. Her voice is so strong and her writing feels like talking to an old friend. If I could be best friends with Annie, I'd move to Thomasville in a heartbeat. This book is emotional, funny, and feel so true to herself.

I absolutely loved Annie's book. I've been a long time follower of her and The Bookshelf and was so glad to hear more of her words. We are similar people and it's always fun to find a kindred spirit out in the wild.

A beautifully reflective book on the act of staying. I appreciated the tension Annie holds between wanting to leave but choosing to stay near her hometown. This is a book that I will return to over and over again.

I loved this so much. I think it gets better as it goes on, with the opening essays easily being the least strong in the collection. This book is signature Annie, if you're a podcast listener, but also has a level of depth and vulnerability you don't get there.

ORDINARY TIME by Annie B. Jones is subtitled "Lessons Learned While Staying Put." Reading this collection of story essays made me feel as though Annie Sue Butterworth Jones was a dear friend sharing her wise observations on life. Readers will learn that she is a talented writer and the owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. One of my book group members also says she "meets with her weekly" since Jones hosts From the Front Porch, a regular podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. In ORDINARY TIME, she writes about family, her dreams, marriage, best friends and so much else (the only section which seems to be oversharing is about religion and her crisis of faith). She offers numerous self-reflective insights: "playing was silencing the perfectionist inside me" or "I am a finisher. But life requires a lot of opening. And I am not so good with the opening, the starting of something new." Jones herself describes ORDINARY TIME as "a collection of stories about a life rooted in place, the blooming of possibility that can happen there, but also the hardship, the loneliness, the longing for more." I especially liked her comments on childhood, "our childhood obsessions like basketball or The Baby-Sitters Club can save us. They can remind us of who we were before anything mattered, ... before everything felt heavy and hard. When life is overwhelming and challenging and our joy is stolen or hard to find, I think the things we once loved can bring us back, center us, make us whole."

**4.5 stars overall **

Her sections on books and reading are well worth re-reading and I wanted to note a couple of other quotes since those looking at this review are likely avid readers themselves:
"I wonder if this is why I love books. I can dip my toe into other lives without entirely changing my own." and
"I read books because, at their best, they make me better, more empathetic, more socially aware, more in tune to the stranger beside me. They help me imagine a better future, provide answers to my insatiable questions, take me to places I'll never get to go. I read books because they are an easy point of entry to relationship." and
"A love of books is the through line of my life, a hobby I can trace back to my earliest childhood memories and immediately weave through my middle school and high school selves ..."

As a long-time fan of Annie and From the Front Porch, I was thrilled to get an early copy of this book. Ordinary Time is perfect for the millennial reader who doesn’t quite know what life stage they’re in.

If you are a fan of Annie B. Jones, you will love this book. It is just as delightful and charming as she is. Even if you are not familiar with her, I would recommend this book. There is so much pressure to be extraordinary, and Annie focuses on the everyday and ordinary joys of living a quiet life. She makes it clear that an ordinary life is not a bad life, and that much joy can come from the ordinary. The book is broken up into parts that range in topic from family, relationships, and faith. Annie's insights are refreshing and soul-filling, and I loved learning more about her life, the choices she's made, and how they have impacted her.

I read a lot of glowing reviews for Ordinary Time and between those and the synopsis, I was definitely intrigued. This book is a series of essays from writer and bookstore owner, Annie Jones, on lessons she learned while staying put. Annie found herself staying local while friends and family members moved elsewhere to pursue new careers, homes, adventures, etc.

I did enjoy this, though maybe not as much as much as I expected to. Some essays resonated a lot and some, less. I appreciated the reflections Annie provided on enjoying the ordinary and quieter moments in life. Recognizing Ordinary Time is somewhat of a memoir, I understand staying has been a theme in Annie’s life – Loving where you live is, I believe, one of the most important choices you make as an adult and staying certainly isn’t for everyone.

My favorite chapter was “A Life Lived with Books” – Why Annie loves them, why she reads, and what books offer. I found this very relatable.

I enjoyed hearing about The Bookshop, a store I would be happy to visit someday, though, I hadn’t listened to her podcast, “From the Front Porch” and think Ordinary Time will resonate even more with readers already familiar with Annie and the show. I did listen to an episode this weekend after finishing the book and enjoyed it — 3.5 stars

4.5 stars rounded up.

Congratulations to Annie B. Jones for publishing her debut essay collection Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put. What a joy it must be to stock and sell it in her bookstore.

As a loyal listener to the author’s From the Front Porch podcast and a faithful reader of The Bookshelf enewsletter, I was concerned I’d be already familiar with most of the essay topics. Thankfully that was not the case, and I really enjoyed these thoughts on family, friendship, marriage, faith, entrepreneurship, and of course, books.

I appreciate the candor of Annie’s writing, sharing deeply personal topics with honesty and humor. I especially connected with her thoughts on faith and on having a brother as her only sibling. An overall theme could be “Bloom where you’re planted.”

The title is very meaningful; I’m confident it comes from Annie’s love for the liturgical church (a lifelong passion of mine). In the church year, “ordinary time” describes the long season between Pentecost (7 weeks after Easter) through Advent (four Sundays before December 25). This season contains no major festivals/holidays; rather, the church focuses on Jesus’ adult life and ministry. It’s viewed as a season of growth (represented by the color green) which makes it a powerful ‘label’ for these chapters in the author’s life.

Thank you to HarperOne for the review copies of this interesting and insightful collection.

This was fine? There didn't really seem to be a clear through-line of a theme to this and a lot of the essays left me shrugging my shoulders. From other reviews it seems like the audiobook may be the best medium for this, but maybe it just wasn't for me (despite by all appearances of the description and content making me think it would be the perfect book for me).

Maybe a 3.5, but nudged up to 4? A star rating seems kind of irrelevant here. Like many, I love Annie B. Jones's podcast, From the Front Porch, and could listen to her wisdom all day. My favorites are the bibliotherapy episodes where she offers creative and actually useful answers to her readers' dilemmas.

As an essay collection, this book has her trademark wisdom, although here it is aimed at her choice to stay in a small town, own a bookshop, and live a short drive from where she grew up. None of those are my life choices, but the essays resonated nevertheless - even when she talked about church.

At the same time, the essays feel just a little thin. They are each very short, and I found they lent themselves to reading one a day rather than in long stretches. I'd like to have seen them a little more fleshed out and with a bit less repetition.

I won't complain that it's not the book I wanted - i.e., one that is partly about running a bookstore in a small town, but also with more of her insight into readers and books more generally. I can just send good thoughts out to the universe that maybe her next one will have some of those elements.

I loved this collection of essays that made me reflect on the beauty and growth found in ordinary and mundane moments and reminded me how even in the midst of the everyday things we are taking for granted, there is purpose and joy and uniqueness to be found