Ordinary Time: Lessons Learned From Staying Put by Annie B. Jones (★★☆☆☆)
Audiobook • Hoopla • Nonfiction (Essays) • 2025
Short synopsis: In Ordinary Time, Annie B. Jones argues that, sometimes, choosing to stay—rooted in small towns, long marriages, quiet faith, and ordinary days—can be a courageous, radical adventure that reveals we don’t have to leave our lives to find meaning, joy, or our deepest dreams.
I really wanted to like this audiobook. It was my last one of 2025 and a quick one—right around 6 hours. Annie B. Jones runs The Bookshelf Thomasville, an indie bookstore, and From the Front Porch, a book podcast. She’s a real-life Kathleen Kelly, and I’ve always really enjoyed her voice and perspective. Unfortunately, this book just didn’t work for me. I wanted Annie to be more introspective, but the book stayed surface-level. I wanted her to dig a little deeper, and if you’re not willing to do that in an essay collection like this, then you shouldn’t write an essay collection.
This is one of those books where it feels like the author didn’t have enough content for an entire book. The first few essays where she digs into staying put and what it means to carve out a life in a small town, were strong, but after that, the book flows into a bunch of disconnected stories about basketball and Ringo Starr and haircuts?!?! It wasn’t well-organized and felt a bit frenetic at times.
I guess I should have guessed this wasn’t a stellar book since Jamie of The Popcast (who is a friend of Annie’s) didn’t give it a green light. (She has green-lit other friends’ books but says upfront that she “doesn’t always green light her friends’ books,” and, well, here’s the proof.) All in all, a rather disappointing read!
Roland Rogers Isn’t Dead Yet by Samantha Allen (★★★☆☆)
Print • Owned (Target) • Contemporary Fiction • 2024
Short synopsis: When a fledgling memoirist is hired to ghostwrite the life story of a recently deceased Hollywood heartthrob—who can still talk via a kitchen speaker—one frantic month of secrets, clashing visions, and supernatural deadlines becomes an unexpected journey toward truth, identity, and home.
I want to start with the disclaimer: this is not a romance. It was sold to me as a romance, and romance is the primary genre it’s being marketed as and categorized under on Goodreads, but it is not a romance. And I think it will severely affect how you feel about the novel if you go into it thinking you’re reading a sweet queer love story. Instead, I believe this novel should be marketed as contemporary fiction. And under that lens, it’s an excellent book.
It tells the story of two men at a crossroads in their lives—one dealing with a bad breakup and a stalled writing career, the other a heartthrob movie star who is finally ready to come out. This novel tackles heavy themes—religious trauma, homophobia, and hate crimes—so it’s not a light read. The story includes a magical realism element: after a skiing accident leaves him dying, Roland can no longer interact with the physical world, but he can still communicate by inhabiting the smart technology in his house. It’s a strange premise, but that was the part of the novel I loved the most because I thought it was such a clever way to tell a story, and the author added some really fun elements that I wasn’t expecting.
That said, the novel didn’t fully meet my expectations. (Mainly because I thought I was reading a romance novel!!) Roland, in particular, didn’t feel fully realized and at times came across more as a caricature than a complex character. Plus, the ending left me unsatisfied. All in all, an uneven reading experience for me.
What Kind of Paradise by Janelle Brown (★★★★☆)
Print • Owned (Book of the Month) • Fiction • 2025
Short synopsis: Raised off the grid by her enigmatic father in rural Montana, a teenage girl flees to a rapidly changing 1990s San Francisco to uncover the truth about her past—only to have her search for identity challenge everything she’s been taught to believe.
My first book of 2026! And it was an excellent start to my reading year. This novel has been everywhere, and it made a lot of lists of the best books of 2025. I really liked this novel, and easily fell in love with Jane, the main character. She was so easy to root for! She was innocent in so many respects, growing up off the grid and barely interacting with anyone other than her father, but she was also brave and smart and open and warm. I thought the author did such a great job showing us all the ways she was learning how the world worked in real time, and sometimes that meant dealing with some hard truths and consequences. There was such a sense of time and place with this novel, whether that was Jane’s life in a remote cabin in Montana or the bustling world of San Francisco in the 1990s during the tech boom. I just loved this book, though, and I can absolutely understand why people are raving about it!
What are you reading?
I have Annie’s book and plan to read it this year during my reading time with Paul each night. I am too much of an Annie super fan to read it without extreme bias so I think I will still love it since she is one of my favorite bookish people. But it’s a bummer it didn’t work for you!
I just finished ‘Overdue’ which is sort of a romance but sort of a contemporary novel. It’s by Stephanie Perkins who previously wrote YA books (which I adored). This is her first adult novel and I loved it. She lives in Asheville so it’s set in a fictional version of that city. Now I am reading ‘The Irish Goodbye’. It’s too soon to say what I think but it has shifting POVs which I like. But there has already been a devastating thing that has happened so people should look at trigger warnings (I won’t say as it would be a sort of spoiler, even though it happens in the early chapters). It’s about challenging family dynamics and boy do I understand what that is like!
I have seen Overdue but wasn’t sure about reading it. I’ll add it to my TBR since you liked it! I loved her YA novels so, so much.
I am reading The Ten Year Affair and it is SO good. I’m devouring it! It’s everything I love in a book.
I have heard so many mixed opinions about that book! I don’t know if it’s right for me, but I’m glad you’re loving it!
Hmm! That third one sounds really good. Actually the second one is intriguing as well. I haven’t had as much reading time lately (I blame football) and it’s frustrating because there are SO many good books I want to read!!! I’m currently reading one of the mysteries I got for Christmas. It’s really good but a little slow going. I need to buckle down and finish it so I can move on!
I’ve been really trying hard to sneak in reading time during the playoff games. It can be so hard, though, especially with having other people around me. I totally understand!
It’s funny, but I often find books that are set in Montana difficult to take. I guess it hits too close to home? I wonder if you feel like that when a book is set in Florida? But now I’m curious about the book, so I put it on my wish list!
Oh, that’s so interesting! I usually love when a book is set in Florida because I feel like I have a greater connection to the setting. When I was reading 11/22/63, Stephen King was talking about places and highways I know so well, and I thought it was so cool! But I can definitely see how it can be difficult, especially if they don’t quite get the setting right.
LOL. Sounds like maybe Annie actually hasn’t found joy and meaning by staying put if the stories didn’t go that deep? When I saw your rating come up on GR I was surprised Jamie hadn’t talked about it. Now I know why!
If they tell me it’s a romance and it doesn’t have a HEA I am OUT. Not cool.
Yay! Glad you liked What Kind of Paradise. Such a good book.
I actually finished two books this am so I get to choose something new (besides the textbook I am reading).
After I finished it, I immediately went to The Popcast’s green lights page to see if she had recommended it, and I felt so validated when I saw it wasn’t on there! It just wasn’t very good, meh.
What Kind of Paradise was so good! And it was our January book club pick and got rave reviews from everyone. Woohoo!
I’m reading The Gales of November which is about a shipwreck on the Great Lakes and it fits nicely into my little niche of maritime novels and Midwestern pride. Ha! Not sure I’ll be able to recommend it widely, but I’m enjoying it.
That sounds like something I’d love to listen to a podcast series about!
I’m reading THE CORRESPONDENT. Can you tell that I’m excited? I happily ditched the book I was reading for my book club the end of January when this one came in from my library hold. The book I’m ignoring is Book Club for Troublesome Women. It’s a collection of all the difficulties women faced in the 50s (maybe), and I feel like the author gathered up all the crap she wanted to include and then drafted a bunch of characters to represent each issue. This does not make for an inspired or interesting read. But, I’m enjoying The Correspondent.
Why would someone write a book full of essays and not go deep?
YAY! I am so glad your hold for The Correspondent came in! That will be a great read after The Troublesome Women book. I think I actually own that book? Maybe?? Mostly because I love the cover. Womp.
Roland Rogers is filed under contemporary/fantasy/LQBTQIA on story graph. I often thought that it was more accurate there than on Goodreads. It does sound interesting so maybe I come across a copy in the library. I wouldn’t say no.
Yeah for a good start into a new reading year.