My words will not do this book justice at all, but I will attempt it.

I have been a listener of From the Front Porch podcast for eight years and a long distance supporter of The Bookshelf for just as long after hearing about it on the podcast. I met Annie in person at the store in 2021, and my kids got to listen to her read during story time at the amphitheater. I can 100% say she is as delightful in person as she is on the podcast . The staff at The Bookshelf are some of the most down to earth friendly humans you'd ever meet. You truly feel at home when you walk into the store. We stop in the store every year on our way to our vacation spot. It's worth taking a detour for, that's for sure.

I couldn't have been more excited for Annie when she announced this book. I couldn't wait to be immersed in the pages. Dare I say we can all relate to at least one topic she wrote about in this book, if not more. Annie put her whole heart into writing this book, and I, for one, am grateful for her words so delicately and thoughtfully written. There were several times that I cried, especially when she talked about her grandmothers. Annie, thank you for sharing your heart with us readers and listeners.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperOne for this ARC. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I loved this book.
Having been a listener of “The Front Porch” podcast for many years, I was familiar with Annie’s thoughtful and creative approach. This book was like catching up with an old friend and offered wonderful perspective to many of life’s seemingly ordinary moments and how to find joy and beauty in them.
I cannot wait to buy a hard copy for friends.

As someone who unintentionally became a “stayer”, this book resonated with me. Maybe not all aspects, but most of it had me nodding and whispering “yep!” to myself as I read. If you listen to Annie’s From the Front Porch podcast, I think you’ll also enjoy what she has to say within these pages and learning more about her through her vulnerable and thoughtful essays, and I’m positive you’ll hear her voice narrating it in your head as you read (I sure did.)

A wonderful debut about finding comfort in one's home, community, workplace, marriage, and self. I really enjoyed this set of essays that takes us through the joys of staying put, even when the world is changing around us. It's not always comfortable, or easy, to navigate these situations, but the payoff is learning to appreciate the messiness of community.

In many ways my life differs a lot from what Annie B. Jones has experienced, but so much of what she writes about rings so true. In particular, reading her chapters about making and navigating friendships in adulthood, were exactly what I needed. It can be hard! it can be sad! It made me feel less alone in this. I most appreciated the empathetic writing about how we all encounter these struggles, but that doesn't make any of this less worth striving for.

I highly recommend this book for anyone who has settled firmly into adulthood, and is looking around going "what now". How to find meaning, build community, build love for your career. It hits particularly close to home for anyone who was raised in the 1990s and early 2000s, but I think would be applicable to many. To that point, while I myself am not religious, I very much appreciated the chapters on navigating faith.

Highly, highly recommend this to all!

What happens when you get the job you’ve always dreamed of? What is really like to be the boss? Read this charming book to find out. A delight for all book lovers!

Thoroughly enjoyed Annie's tales of finding joy and a sense of home when life feels stagnant. I liked the bite sized essays and looked forward to go back for more chapters

I have "known" Annie online for a long time and we worked together on some very early audio recordings (that could surely not be called a podcast) where we talked about things like women's roles (I used the f-word, feminism, to the surprise of some) and community. It is so interesting to see these threads from 2010/2011 make it into Annie's work now. I wish we'd had some more conversations about ambivalence about parenting because I related to those sections a lot.

She writes beautiful essays on what it means to stay in a place and stay within yourself. There is an element of Christian faith but it is not the main theme of the book. Some of these essays make more sense as to their place in the book when you finish the entire section, which is typical for a book with this kind of structure.

I would recommend this for people who follow Annie and people who have deconstructed Christian faith and are thinking about their role in the world.

I was so grateful to receive this book from NetGalley many months before the publication of Ordinary Time.
I enjoyed reading Annie B. Jones's reflections on her life and staying put. I appreciated her transparency and
authenticity. Despite our several decades of age difference, I was pleasantly surprised to find so many commonalities
as she shared lessons and takeaways from her life. Ordinary Time gave me several opportunities to revisit different
life stages and ponder aspects of friendship, work, faith, and the places we choose to live.
I am grateful to have read this memoir.

I was intrigued by the premise of the book, which what led me to pick up. Maybe it was my expectation of what this book would be, but I found the short chapters a bit too surface level to me. I did appreciate the different stories in an attempt to explore how they're important to our lives, but I wished for a bit more description. Overall an easy read.

As a fan of From the Front Porch podcast I jumped at the chance to read Annie Jones’ debut work of essays and it felt as familiar as her weekly conversations about books, small business, and life in the south. Listeners of the podcast will no doubt find themselves enthralled with getting to know their host better, but I encourage non listeners to also read this book. In it you will find familiar words about a life well lived and lived with purpose. I believe that is what most of are looking for. This book is both affirming and inspiring as she discussed: growing up, faith, leaving and finding church, marriage, fertility, business, and more. I felt seen and understood in its pages and I think many readers will resonate with more than a few of her essays. If I had to pick a favorite it would be the very last essay, but honestly they are all excellent. This doesn’t come out till next spring but you can preorder at Annie’s bookstore-@bookshelftville.
A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Not long after receiving my bachelors degree from Martin University, I found myself entertaining the idea of law school. I'd discovered a relatively small dual program - JD/MPA - on the west coast and thought to myself "Maybe now's the time to move."

I was born and raised in Indianapolis, the city where I continue to live now in my 50s having decided for a variety of reasons to stay put.

I'm always intrigued by the idea of staying, though I will admit my trauma background also constantly reminds me there are reasons, incredibly valid and necessary reasons, for also learning when and how to leave.

Annie B. Jones's "Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Stay Put" will most resonate with those who are familiar with her "From the Front Porch" podcast. Appropriately so, there is an actual ordinariness to the book that is pleasing and comfortable and affirming of the quieter side of life. Indeed, a key element of the book is the idea that it's not the loud lives that matter the most and we don't always have to leave the lives we have in order to live the lives of our dreams.

There are references in "Ordinary Time" to the movie "You've Got Mail," references that give you a good idea of what to expect here. Jones always assumed her life would be louder - a high-powered career living in a big city with lots of adventures. She is still successful, of course. It's not that she's saying her dreams don't matter - it's just that she's redefined those dreams into what is more substance than spectacle. She's stayed in her small town. She continues to own a small independent bookstore. She's been married to the same man she met when she was 18. While friends have left, employees have moved on, and the world around her has changed, it would seem as if Jones has learned to love and embrace the life she's living.

"Ordinary Time" is the second book I've read in 2024 on this central theme of staying when the world around you leaves. I give the slight nod to "Ordinary Time," mostly owing to the fact that I think Jones has a better sense of what she's trying to accomplish with the book.

I don't believe, really, that "Ordinary Time" is really about staying as much as it's about embracing a quieter life. In reality, Jones was in the bigger city - it just wasn't her. So, she moved back to the smaller town - that's not, at least in my opinion, so much a devotion to staying as it is realizing and embracing you prefer the quieter life.

I also can't say that I embrace the idea that her staying with her first meaningful relationship is an essay on staying. While the world does seem to embrace the idea of changing relationships like we change our clothes, it would seem that Jones has simply chosen well a compatible figure whose life path is compatible in the most ordinary of ways.

Truthfully, there was never really a time in "Ordinary Time" when I sensed Jones feeling a real call to leave. So, "staying" doesn't really seem to be the push here. However, "ordinary" is entirely different. You can feel Jones struggling with those inner "shoulds" and "wants" and cultural expectations around living a louder life. You can feel her heart calling her into a quieter life, though I do chuckle somewhat at how actually writing a book about it fits into it all.

But, I get it and it comes to life beautifully here as Jones lets go of the idea of chasing the mega-life in favor of embracing one's own messy, mundane life.

Truthfully, I've never regretted staying in Indianapolis despite the relationship I was in when I made the decision having long ago ended. My life is not perfect, yet my life is ordinary and wonderful and peaceful and, well, mine.

As a paraplegic/double amputee with spina bifida, I left the safety of disability for the privilege of working. The majority of my work life has involved two employment situations - one of 10 years (that ended when the business closed) and one of 17 years where I continue to work and will likely retire. In between, I had a couple short-term jobs after layoffs. However, there's no question I prefer staying.

I do wish there'd been a slight nod here for those situations where leaving is important - as Jones herself even notes leaving behind the somewhat toxic church of her childhood in favor of a healthier, more personally satisfying church in her adult years. There are reasons to leave - toxic faith, abusive relationships, unhealthy work situations - however, they're really not mentioned here.

Again, however, I think that's largely because Jones is less focused on "staying" and more on this idea of embracing the ordinary.

It's likely not surprising that I enjoyed "Ordinary Time," though I suppose I enjoyed it in a more ordinary way that is quiet, peaceful, and left me feeling better than when I started it. As I've gotten older with my disability, I've learned that my heart, mind, and body are all happier when I tone down the ambition and embrace being present in my life.

It's worth noting that Jones writes with an approach that is somewhat faith inspired (rather than actually being faith-based) and seems to lean a bit into a more progressive faith that may conflict with that "front porch" image some have of her. Unburdened by that image, I enjoyed getting to know Annie Jones and she writes in such a way that she makes you want to join her for a cup of tea on that front porch.

“Good stories are anywhere you are. Your ordinary life matters, and the place you’re living it matters, too.” - Annie B. Jones in ORDINARY TIME

I have never wanted to hug an essay collection so much! After feeling like I know Annie B. Jones through listening to her podcast From the Front Porch for the last five years, reading her first book is leveling up on how much I feel like I have in common with her.

Growing up Catholic, “ordinary time” to me has meant those non-holiday times - that post-Easter to Thanksgiving trudge of not having anything extraordinary to look forward to in the liturgical calendar. So I loved that Annie chose that title for this essay collection because that is precisely when so much of our life happens. It’s not in the flashy holidays. It’s the day after day stick-to-it-ness that shows what all of us are made of.

Annie shares her perspective on staying in one place even when others are choosing to spread their wings and going to big cities. There are so many thoughtful reflections that made me tear up: when people she loves leave, faith and changing churches and even religions, running a business and being a boss, what her given name means to her, family with a lovely essay devoted to her little brother, books, marriage, children. And pools and puppies.

My heart was filled by this collection.

ORDINARY TIME publishes April 22, 2025.

See my review at http://michelleardillo.com/2024/11/06/book-review-ordinary-time-lessons-learned-while-staying-put-by-annie-b-jones/

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperOne for this advance readers copy, in exchange for an honest review. I am a new listener to Annie’s From the Front Porch podcast and I was so excited to get to read this book early! This is Annie’s ode to what it means to stay, when it feels like so many people and so much of the world is constantly in flight and on the way to somewhere else. And it was just beautiful.

It’s so easy to get caught up in the thinking that because you are from a small town, don’t move to a big city, are content in an “ordinary life”, that you are less than or unworthy of certain things or maybe don’t matter as much, as Annie related and as I can certainly empathize with. But, like Annie says here, you very much do matter and it often can take just as much strength to stay as to leave. There were so many chapters in this book that resonated with me and that I think will resonate with others, this would be a perfect book to gift and to return to for its sentiments, when you need what feels like a comforting hug.

The process of deciding what you want or what is best for yourself, in a world that praises constant change and betterment, can be very difficult and reading about Annie’s journey is both a comfort and a reminder that it’s okay to not have it all figured out. Annie describes her experience mostly staying, occasionally leaving, and sometimes shifting her beliefs around religion and church, her idea of home, and what she wants from life— in these trying times, it was like a balm to hear from someone else who’s still figuring it out and asking questions that sometimes don’t have a clear answer. The hard work of staying through it and learning to live in your skin when staying is what you want, when an ordinary life is what you want, is validated through Annie’s book— it’s a true gift.

This collection is very honest, vulnerable, emotional, funny, and all around wonderful. I can’t wait for other readers to get their hands on this, I would most certainly recommend!

If this book came out before Christmas, so many people I know would be getting it as a gift. Like Annie B. Jones, I am a person who stayed, even though I didn’t mean to. I live in the same county I grew up in, 30 minutes from my mom’s house. The landscapes here are known to me even as stores and neighborhoods are built over what used to be farms. I love it here. But I’d be lying if I didn’t say there’s a teeny part of me that wonders what if…

Jones’s essays about being a person, a woman, a reader, a friend, and so many other identities resonated deeply with me. Our lives are so different and yet there were so many times when I was reading and I thought, yes, me too.

I am so glad this book is going into the world and can’t wait until I can share it.

I need a "cozy" read in my life, and this is absolutely what this is. Going into this read, I wasn't familiar with the author - her bookstore, her podcast, her social media, etc. - so this was my first introduction. And now I want to connect with all of those things! This book is truly about the ordinary, but with that, it's about understanding the importance of that part of life. It's about finding the joy, the beauty, the whatever you need in the people, places, and experiences of life. I love the relatability and framing of the reflections, and it was just a wonderful read all around. Thanks to NetGalley for the early look at this April 2025 release - It's one I plan on revisiting.

"Your ordinary life matters, and the place you're living it matters, too."

Do I know Annie B Jones? No. Do I feel like I know her because she shares her heart and soul with her bookstore, podcast and book recommendations? Absolutely. Annie feels like a kindred spirit who knows what it’s like to be decidedly uncool as a teenager, and what it’s like to be an awkward adult.

When talking about getting married young and and entering adulthood with her husband she said, "We've always been a little elderly on the inside, so maybe we were more mature than our twenty-two years suggested." I can relate to this because I joke about being 'old' on the inside. I think it is a blessing from growing up close to and spending so much time with both sets of my grandparents. Annie recognizes the value of ordinary things having the ability to be the biggest blessings in our lives.

Sometimes it's easy to feel left behind or that you aren't moving forward when your friends and peers are building their lives in big cities or at big jobs. I have found the most happiness in my adult life enjoying the things that brought me comfort in my childhood...books, familiar TV shows, time with family and friends, and food. This is the "good stuff".

I really enjoyed reading this. It felt like reading letters from a close friend who knows what it's like to feel discontent. And who knows how to move through the discontentment by celebrating your every day life, family and friends.

"The solution to an age of disenchantment? Be enchanted. Share about it." Simply put, I was enchanted by this book and I hope others are too.

Thanks to NetGalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

My gosh, this is the book I didn't know I needed! Ever since the pandemic, I wish to stay home and enjoy being home more than ever. I'm not bored or longing for city life and extravagant things anymore. Ordinary Time is a well-structured book that explores everyday life and contentment with it. I loved it. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I feel like the blurb, and categories for this for this book was misleading. It is much more about religion then I expected. From the blurb I thought I’d love it, but actually it wasn’t at all for me.

If I am honest, this book kinda shocked me.
It was very revealing about Annie’s faith, thoughts, and personal life.
1. Unless it was a typo, she definitely called God a “she”.
2. She doesn’t believe the Bible to be literal.
3. This was a problem for me.
I am saddened for her that she was raised in a doctrine of belief that put baptism and the Lord’s table into their salvation. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast"
I don’t feel Annie is sure about her salvation and that also just made me feel sad. She requires a spiritual director and a counselor to help guide her through her life.

She was raised in a family that you can tell was full of life. She was raised on Little Women and Anne and Babysitter’s Club and American Girl. Like me! There were a few fun bubbly chapters on book clubs and books and her brother. I wanted to read and know… I just came away feeling differently than I thought I would.

Thank you to NetGalley for the chance to read this book.