Annie B. Jones owns an independent bookstore in the small Southern town of Thomasville, Ga. She is also the host of a podcast about books called From the Front Porch. With the release of Ordinary Time, Jones can add "memoirist" to her growing list of literary milestones. With upbeat warmth, wit, and wisdom, Jones reflectively chronicles all she's learned over her years of small-town living.
In her younger, more restless days, Jones, a native of Tallahassee, Fla., aspired to live as a journalist in New York. However, after high school, she wound up attending a small college in Alabama and fell in love. Since graduation, she and her husband have remained happily entrenched in the South. They live "up the road" from her parents. "Staying put requires a certain strength of imagination," Jones claims. "I wanted to write a book for people who stayed, but I also wanted to honor those who left. Because eventually, we'll all do a lot of both, leaving and staying."
Jones is a self-proclaimed "stayer," and her cultivated awareness oozes with gratitude at being able to turn her passion for books into a livelihood within a community she values and loves. This recognition binds her comforting, tender narrative that, like a beautiful quilt, is composed of a patchwork of personal stories rooted in themes of love, marriage, faith, and friendship. The day-to-day moments Jones shares will undoubtedly inspire readers to find meaning, joy, and purpose in life--no matter where they live. --Kathleen Gerard, blogger at Reading Between the Lines