Most writers are also avid readers. However, not everyone who reads a lot can write, or even wants to write at all. In fact, there are some people who are great writers who don’t read much at all. This book, Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned While Staying Put by Annie B. Jones, is by an avid reader and an indie bookstore owner, and after having finished her first book today, I will say, yes, she can also write.
This is a book of essays, part autobiographical and part memoir. It covers a lot of ground and is divided into five parts: Staying Friends, Staying Put, Staying Faithful, Staying Grounded, and Staying You, for a total of 24 chapters, a foreword, and an epilogue. It is an easy read, one I started and finished on my last day of vacation in sunny California, mostly at the pool under a canopy of palm trees swaying in a rather brisk breeze. The language is accessible and straightforward. It is the story of Annie B. Jones, who she was, who she is, and who she wants to be.
As with most books of essays, I connected with some more than others, but on the whole, I enjoyed this book. I didn’t know much about the author, other than the fact that she owned a bookstore and had a very popular podcast. I didn’t know she was born and raised in Florida and lives and works in Thomasville, Georgia. She identifies herself as Southern, although perhaps not as Southern as her husband, Jordan, with the thick Alabama accent.
In some ways, Annie B. Jones and I are very similar, and it is in those essays spotlighting our similarities where I really loved her stories. I, too, have been an avid reader my entire life, reading nearly anything I could get my hands on, begging for several years for the complete set of Encyclopedia Britannica (settling for the Compton’s Encyclopedia which was only just a bit more than my parents could afford), and feeling such joy and peace upon entering either the library or a bookstore. I’ve always thought owning a bookstore would be such a great way to make a living, but I am old enough to know that a career in retail is very, very difficult and not for the faint of heart (or someone without deep pockets).
The premise of this collection of essays (which she calls stories) is that a wonderful and fulfilling life can be lived in a small way. One does not need to move to NYC to kickstart a great life. Jones left Tallahassee, Florida, to attend college in Montgomery, Alabama, where she met her husband, marrying just after graduation. She describes “staying” as blooming where you’re planted, being content with your life without always looking to a greener pasture elsewhere.
It is in the early chapters of this book where I first thought of Elizabeth Strout’s most recent book Tell Me Everything, where in her masterful way she describes the notion of people living unrecorded lives, people who didn’t go off searching for greatness, who didn’t leave behind a great legacy of some sort or other, who didn’t have a Wikipedia page documenting their accomplishments. The people that Olive and Lucy talk about in Strout’s book aren’t “blooming where they are planted,” but they are staying, and in their quiet, unrecorded lives are made worthy by those conversations.
I loved Jones’s chapter about adult play, about having a hobby that doesn’t turn into a side hustle, something that is reminiscent of the feeling we had as children when we just played for the sake of fun. Jones’s escape into play is via a line-dancing class at the YMCA, and it is pure joy to read the pure joy she finds in that class.
In another chapter, Jones talks about author and podcaster Gretchen Rubin and her theory that we are all openers or finishers. This especially rang true for me, as I am 100% most definitely now and always have been a finisher, just like Jones.
I had to chuckle a bit over one of Jones’s statements, where she says, “I don’t want to be known for my eye roll but for my awe.” I absolutely love that quote.
But, my favorite chapter of this book was titled “Sam Malone and a House with a Pool.” At the top of my bucket list, tip top in the #1 spot, is to someday own a house with a pool. My own, private, swim whenever I want, pool. Nothing big or fancy, but a rectangle that I can gleefully swim lap after lap after lap, all year round, every single day. Annie B. Jones talks about all the pros and cons of owning a house with a pool, and guess what? The pros definitely outweigh the cons. I want my husband to read Chapter 22 so he can really understand why I so badly want a house with a pool.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperOne for the ARC of this book of essays, and thank you to Annie B. Jones for putting it all out there for us to read and reflect upon. Best of wishes for you, your marriage, your bookstore, and your podcast!
Michelle Blanchard Ardillo 
Comment here!