Home Feed
Home
Search
Search
Add Review, Blurb, Quote
Add
Activity
Activity
Profile
Profile
Awayland
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
22 posts | 16 read | 30 to read
An inventive story collection that spans the globe as it explores love, childhood, and parenthood with an electric mix of humor and emotion. Acclaimed for the grace, wit, and magic of her novels, Ramona Ausubel introduces us to a geography both fantastic and familiar in eleven new stories, some of them previously published in The New Yorker and The Paris Review. Elegantly structured, these stories span the globe and beyond, from small-town America and sunny Caribbean islands to the Arctic Ocean and the very gates of Heaven itself. And though some of the stories are steeped in mythology, they remain grounded in universal experiences: loss of identity, leaving home, parenthood, joy, and longing. Crisscrossing the pages of Awayland are travelers and expats, shadows and ghosts. A girl watches as her homesick mother slowly dissolves into literal mist. The mayor of a small Midwestern town offers a strange prize, for stranger reasons, to the parents of any baby born on Lenin's birthday. A chef bound for Mars begins an even more treacherous journey much closer to home. And a lonely heart searches for love online--never mind that he's a Cyclops. With her signature tenderness, Ramona Ausubel applies a mapmaker's eye to landscapes both real and imagined, all the while providing a keen guide to the wild, uncharted terrain of the human heart.
Amazon Indiebound Barnes and Noble WorldCat Goodreads LibraryThing
blurb
rachelsbrittain
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image

Book Outlet haul

rachelsbrittain Thanks @sebrittainclark for getting me a gift card for my birthday! ❤️ 2y
BookwormAHN The Witch's Heart is fantastic ♥️ 2y
Soubhiville Woo hoo! I second @BookwormAHN . 2y
52 likes3 comments
review
Mitch
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image
Mehso-so

I'm not a short story lover - so these may have been wasted on me! They were mythical, with a touch of magical realism, some felt profound, some humorous, some a little silly. Bundles of symbolism, loosely into connected and all provoking a sense of connection / disconnection to place. They were interesting, but they didn't convert me!

DGRachel I struggle with short stories, too! The Akashic Noir collections are about the only ones I can consistently tolerate, and I think that's because they are so specialized. 5y
75 likes4 stack adds1 comment
blurb
Mitch
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image

Reading short stories - having a break between story 1 and 2 - chocolate and mango gelato just needs to be eaten! Thinking I might go for honeycomb and dulce de leche in-between story 2 and 3! Snacks are important part of the reading life, right?!

megnews 😋 5y
catebutler Looks delicious! And yes to snacking in-between. Happy reading, Mitch. 5y
mcctrish Very important and what excellent choices 5y
sudi 😋 5y
99 likes4 comments
blurb
Mitch
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image

Friday afternoon escape to the beach - I'm not usually a lover of short stories (that's putting it mildly!!) - but I read Florida by Lauren Groff recently and it may have changed my mind about the form! Shorts stories seem perfect for the beach - read one, then swim, sleep, have ice cream and repeat! There are 11 stories - let's see how I go!

wanderinglynn Sounds like a great plan! 👍🏻 Enjoy! 5y
TheAromaofBooks I also have troubles with short stories, so I'll be interested to see how these go for you!! 5y
84 likes1 stack add2 comments
blurb
callielafleur
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image

Litsy, I've been away for awhile. Went a couple weeks without even picking up my current read. I miss you all! Going to be making more of an effort to be around. It's way healthier for me to be here rather than other corners of the internet (looking at you, Twitter).

Here is a picture of my niece, hope she makes you smile!

Traci1 She's gorgeous. 😍 5y
AmyG Isn‘t she a cutie! And yes....ugh.....twitter. I should just delete it. It makes me so nuts. 5y
TheSpineView She's adorable! 5y
See All 10 Comments
JacqMac I‘ve been distancing myself from social media, too. I‘m so glad Litsy has stayed sane, And she‘s adorable! 5y
zezeki She is adorable!! 5y
MaureenMc Those curls! 😍 5y
Dragon 💕 👶 5y
readordierachel What a cutie! 5y
BookwormAHN So cute 💕 5y
inthegreensandblues Welcome back! I'm in a similar position. 😊 5y
87 likes10 comments
review
KatieDid927
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image
Pickpick

This collection wasn‘t exactly what I was expecting, but I‘m not really sure what I was expecting. I still really enjoyed it. Some of the stories were uneven but overall it was a great read.

Fridameetslucy Love the cover illustration ! 5y
31 likes1 comment
review
PNWBookseller85
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image
Pickpick

The second Ramona Ausubel book that I‘ve read. I also read No One is Here Except All of Us - which has stayed with me even years after finishing it. She‘s quickly becoming a favorite of mine. I loved these short stories. They were inventive and moving. The perfect post-vacation reading slump pick-me-up.

candority Wow, I love that cover! 5y
Freespirit I agree I love the cover! 5y
105 likes1 stack add2 comments
review
shaynarae
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image
Pickpick

I thoroughly enjoyed this short story collection. It had the perfect pacing, style, and touch of magic/surrealism that I love.

27 likes5 stack adds
blurb
MirrorMask
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image

1. I took a picture of Awayland after I finished reading it at my local library.
2. 81 and 59 degrees Fahrenheit
3. Rice, chicken and veggies
4. I'd rather read all my books
5. Iced tea

#HumpDayPost @MinDea

readordierachel Did you like Awayland? I've been wondering about that author. 6y
MirrorMask @ReadOrDieRachel I really enjoyed Awayland. 6y
63 likes2 comments
blurb
Jokila
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image

minkyb I look forward to reading this at some point! 6y
35 likes1 comment
blurb
BookishShelly
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image

I love Goodreads giveaways! Thanks @RiverheadBooks !

37 likes1 stack add
review
Bookalong
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image
Pickpick

Finished this up recently. 🌟🌟🌟🌟/5
Awayland is a collection of 11 short stories. Asubel has such an imagination! Her writing is beautifully crafted. Blending reality and fantasy so wonderfully.
Told in four sections these stories contain tales of love, longing, hope, loss, death, and sadness.
Such a weird but wonderful read!
I enjoyed every story in this collection.

review
MadCatRamble
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image
Mehso-so

Some of these stories completely wrung me out, they were so emotionally powerful and linguistically rich. Others just didn‘t connect for me. As glad as I am to have read the collection, it was a little too hit or miss for me to feel fully satisfied.

blurb
SharonGoforth
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image

Today‘s purchases. Got a little bit of everything 📚📚 #newbooks #nosuchthingastoomanybooks #britishcrimefiction #wellcomebookprize #shortstories

49 likes1 stack add
quote
catiewithac
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image

review
catiewithac
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image
Pickpick

Ramona Ausubel is one of my must-read authors. Her 1st short story collection wrung me out and left me breathless from her ferociously unbound imagination. This 2nd collection contains some stunners as well. On the whole, these stories are more grieved and cerebral than I remember. The characters are somewhat distant but still real enough to relate to. Definitely a one of a kind writer! Expect to be surprised and punched in the gut!

19 likes1 stack add
quote
8leagueboot
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image

My heart...

LauraBeth I can‘t wait to read this! 6y
8leagueboot @LauraBeth it's really excellent. A couple of the stories are real gut-punches... 6y
27 likes2 comments
blurb
thereadingwomen
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image

Here's to amazing women everywhere and all the incredible books they write.
And thanks to all of you who help us celebrate brilliant women writers the other 364 days of the year. 🎉
#InternationalWomensDay

Jess7 Happy Women‘s Day!! 6y
129 likes3 stack adds1 comment
review
parasolofdoom
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
Pickpick

I can't quite pinpoint what was so engaging with this collection. The language is beautiful, the stories bittersweet and tinged with a sense of loss and homesickness in many forms. Perhaps I can find better words to describe the intense feelings you get reading this after a little distance but I doubt it. These stories leave you feeling wrung out.

ohyeahthatgirl Ooh I'm so glad to hear you liked it! I love Ausubel's work so much and I can't wait to read this. 6y
parasolofdoom @ohyeahthatgirl I didn't even realize I was so sucked in untill I realized I'd been reading it in snatches all day s d finished on pub. day 😂 6y
5 likes2 comments
blurb
parasolofdoom
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image

Even though I'm in the middle of several other books, I couldn't resist starting this right away when I saw my that hold was in when I woke up today 😊

ohyeahthatgirl It's been so long since she's put out a new book. I'm so excited! 6y
8leagueboot I can't get over the cover 😍 6y
11 likes1 stack add2 comments
blurb
parasolofdoom
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image

You know it's a Tuesday when you wake up to three new release holds available! #overdrive #libbyapp

blurb
catiewithac
Awayland: Stories | Ramona Ausubel
post image

OMG I‘m so excited to read this new story collection from Ramona Ausubel!!! She‘s become one of my favorite contemporary writers!

I‘ve just wrapped up 5 shifts in a row so not much reading to report other than I started Naomi Alderman‘s The Power. #nursesoflitsy

What‘s everyone else reading over the long weekend? 📖