“Good stories are anywhere you are. Your ordinary life matters, and the place you’re living it matters, too.” - Annie B. Jones in ORDINARY TIME

I have never wanted to hug an essay collection so much! After feeling like I know Annie B. Jones through listening to her podcast From the Front Porch for the last five years, reading her first book is leveling up on how much I feel like I have in common with her. 

Growing up Catholic, “ordinary time” to me has meant those non-holiday times - that post-Easter to Thanksgiving trudge of not having anything extraordinary to look forward to in the liturgical calendar. So I loved that Annie chose that title for this essay collection because that is precisely when so much of our life happens. It’s not in the flashy holidays. It’s the day after day stick-to-it-ness that shows what all of us are made of. 

Annie shares her perspective on staying in one place even when others are choosing to spread their wings and going to big cities. There are so many thoughtful reflections that made me tear up: when people she loves leave, faith and changing churches and even religions, running a business and being a boss, what her given name means to her, family with a lovely essay devoted to her little brother, books, marriage, children. And pools and puppies.

My heart was filled by this collection.   

ORDINARY TIME publishes April 22, 2025.