Hi, I’m Annie.
I’m the owner of The Bookshelf, an independent bookstore in beautiful downtown Thomasville, Georgia. For 11 years, I’ve also been the host of From the Front Porch, our store’s conversational podcast about books, small business, and life in the South. Now, I’ve written a book about what it’s like to stay put, to live in a small town and become rooted and grounded in life-changing community. Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put, releases into the world on April 22, 2025, and I hope it might open your eyes to the beautiful stories you’re already living. There really is something magical about a quiet, ordinary life.
When I’m not running the store, recording a podcast, or writing a book (!), I love Voxing with friends; traveling with my husband, Jordan; and hanging out at home watching TV with our dog Sam Malone.
In her first book, the popular 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.
Can life be an adventure, even when it’s just… ordinary?
Annie 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 18; 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. Rummaging through her small-town existence, she finds hidden gifts of humor and hope from a life lived quietly. Staying, can itself be a radical act. It takes courage to stay in the places we’ve always called home, Jones argues, as she paints a portrait of possibility far away from thriving metropolises and Monica Gellar-inspired apartments.
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.
Endorsements
“Oh, wow, do I love this book! Ordinary Time wears its earnestness as a well-deserved badge of honor; it’s an inspiration to all of us to be true to ourselves, true to what we love, and true to the quiet voice within us.”
“In Ordinary Time, Annie Jones turns mundanity into meaning — giving her readers a beautifully told and deeply considered account of the everyday choices that pile up to become a life. It reads like a soothing conversation with a trustworthy friend.”
“Ordinary Time feels like a long conversation with a good friend about the things in life that matter most, the kind of talk that leaves you feeling both grounded and inspired.”
“Annie writes a love letter to everyone who’s ever wondered if they made the right choice to stay, to stick around, to continue on. I absolutely adored the tender way she carries her stories of remaining, and how she shares them to remind us of our long obedience in the same direction.”
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