Avid readers who also listen to bookish podcasts will recognize the name Annie B. Jones. She’s the host of From the Front Porch, a weekly podcast produced by Jones and her staff at The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. This spring, Jones goes from bookseller to author with the release of her memoir in essays.
In Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put, Jones writes about her decision to settle with her husband in a small Georgia town — forgetting, at least for the time being, her childhood vision of working as a journalist in a big, bustling city. She has hosted goodbye parties for friends and coworkers who left to pursue big dreams in major metropolitan areas. And while she loves traveling to Europe and New York City herself, she always returns to Thomasville and to the guy she met when she was 18.
The collection of essays touches on major life milestones, including college, career and marriage, as well as Jones’s struggles with faith. She writes candidly about her decision to leave the church of her childhood for a more liturgical but socially progressive denomination. She writes about book clubs and line dancing, about March Madness and front porches. And lest you think small-town Southern life is all sweet tea and smiles, Jones also relates painful moments when the only voices she heard seemed to be those saying she did not belong.
The stories are about a life rooted in place — “the blooming of possibility that can happen there, but also the hardship, the loneliness, the longing for more,” Jones writes. “I wanted stories that showed it all, because those are the stories so many of us are living.”
Anyone who’s ever marveled at life’s journey will enjoy this memoir. Jones writes with joy and heart, and she underscores the idea that a quiet, ordinary existence can be magical.
