East Bay Bookshelf

It’s Tuesday, so it’s time to take a peek inside my TBR! This week I’m featuring Ordinary Time by Annie B. Jones.

From the publisher:

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. 

Throughout my life, I’ve been a “mover.” As a kid, my family moved every three years. In college, I studied abroad one summer and interned out-of-state another summer. As an adult, I’ve lived in eight different cities and six states over fourteen years. It’s been anything but ordinary and I feel so lucky to have had the opportunities and meet so many wonderful people across the country! There is always someone I know in a city nearby.

But this also means I know what it’s like to rebuild a life in a new city over and over and over again. That’s why, sometimes, I have a deep ache for ordinary time. Time when I’m not trying to make new friends or figure out who my son’s emergency contact will be. Time enough to become a regular somewhere.

One of my life-long dreams is to simply stay put.

Ordinary Time was published in April 2025. Annie B. Jones is also the podcast host of From the Front Porch and owner of The Bookshelf in Thomasville, Georgia.

Check out the other Tuesday TBR posts!