Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put
About this audiobook
****AudioFile Earphones Award Winner****
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“A beautifully written story of the sweetness of staying put, Jones’s book will add depth to any memoir collection.”—Library Journal
Can life be an adventure, even when it’s just . . . ordinary?
From the Front Porch podcast host and independent bookstore owner challenges the idea that loud lives are the ones that matter most, reminding us that we don't have to leave the lives we have in order to have the lives of which we've always dreamed.
Annie B. Jones always assumed adulthood would mean adventure: a high-powered career; life in a big, bustling city; and travels to far-flung places she’d longed to see. But her reality turned out differently. As the years passed, Annie was still in the same small town running an independent bookstore —the kind of life Nora Ephron dreamed.
During that time, she hosted friends’ goodbye parties and mailed parting gifts; wrote recommendation letters and wished former shop staffers well. She stayed in her small town, despite her love of big cities; stayed in her marriage to the guy she met when she was eighteen; and she stayed at her bookstore while the world outside shifted steadily toward digital retailers. And she stayed loyal to a faith she sometimes didn’t recognize.
After ten years, Annie realized she might never leave. But instead of regret, she had an epiphany. She awakened to the gifts of a quiet life spent staying put.
In Ordinary Time, Annie:
- Challenges the idea that loud lives matter most.
- Finds hidden gifts of humor and hope from a life lived quietly as she rummages through her small-town existence. S
- Discovers staying, can itself be a radical act.
- Realizes that it takes courage to stay in the places we’ve always called home.
We’ve long been encouraged to follow our dreams, to pack up and move to new places and leave old lives—and past selves—behind. While there is beauty in these kinds of adventures, Ordinary Time helps us see ourselves right where we are: in the middle of messy, mundane lives, maybe not too far from where we grew up.
We don’t have to leave to find what we yearn—we can choose to stay, celebrating and honoring our ordinary lives, which might turn out to be bigger and better than we ever imagined.
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About the author
Annie B. Jones is a writer, podcaster, and the owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in Thomasville, Georgia. Jones hosts From the Front Porch, a weekly podcast about books, small business, and life in the South, and her work has been featured in Southern Living magazine. A native of Tallahassee, Florida, she lives in Thomasville with her husband, Jordan, and their dog, Sam Malone.
Emily P. Freeman is the New York Times bestselling author of How to Walk into a Room: The Art of Knowing When to Stay and When to Walk Away. As a spiritual director, podcast host of The Next Right Thing, and creator of The Soul Minimalist on Substack, hers has become a trustworthy voice of wisdom and direction for people as they make decisions in faith, work, and life. Emily holds a master’s degree in Christian Spiritual Formation and Leadership from Friends University where she serves as a residency lecturer. She and her husband, John, live in North Carolina where they are enjoying a newly empty nest with their three young adult children away at college.
