7 ms·

Not the one near me (in Phoenix, near Arizona State University). It's a major anchor in a shopping center, and is busy every time I'm ever in there. The emplo

• seanmcdirmid 9y ago
  It’s weird, but some stores are thriving and others are dying. The one in downtown Santa Monica Ca is super crowded whenever I went there, while the one in downtown Bellevue WA is super dead. My impression of B&N changes quickly....
  • kermittd 9y ago
    Funny enough that one in downtown Santa Monica just shut down after being open for twenty-something years. Source: I work/live near there and always went. Also http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2018/01/barnes_noble_closes_in_sa.php http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2018/01/barnes_noble_close...
    • seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      Oh, wow! I guess even busy they still couldn’t pay the rent.
  • grogenaut 9y ago
    you mean the one in bellevue near the new amazon building in bellevue across the lake from amazon hq1? I'm not sure that's the best store to example off of.
    • seanmcdirmid 9y ago
      The long time one in downtown, not sure if there is an Amazon building downtown. They closed the attached (real) Starbucks and now it lacks a cafe, even though the Starbucks was always busy the store was still kind of empty.
      • grogenaut 9y ago
        Yeah that's the one I'm thinking of. There are 2 starbucks one block up the hill to the transit center too, so basically 3 on that square block. It was too far down the hill for me to go to when I worked there.
        • seanmcdirmid 9y ago
          Bellevue is saturated with starbucks, but very few that were open until 10PM like the one in B&N was (actually, only the Lodge and the original Bellevue store are open late). It was the place for students to hang out studying, but now...there really isn't much to replace it.
          • grogenaut 9y ago
            I always went to rock bottom and awkwardly worked at the bar.
• Kluny 9y ago
  Patricia C Wrede, Mercedes Lackey, Tamora Pierce, Ursula K Le Guin, Judy Blume and Anne McCaffrey are some authors who have outstanding books for girls in that age range, in case you find yourself with the same problem again.
  • blhack 9y ago
    Thank you! Any specific stories you recommend? The problem I was having with the things I was looking at were that a lot of them seemed to be basically romance novels for kids.
    • thaumasiotes 9y ago
      I am not a girl. But I liked the Dealing with Dragons series from Patricia C. Wrede (humorous), The Hero and the Crown and The Blue Sword from Robin McKinley, and the Dragon's Blood series from Jane Yolen.
      • lostcolony 9y ago
        You can get the entire Enchanted Forest series (the name of the series that Dealing with Dragons is the first of; four books in total) for $20-30. As a male I enjoyed it, and one of my best female friends also remembers it fondly. I'd also throw in Sabriel, as a YA fantasy novel that I really liked, that had a female protagonist who kicked ass (rather than was there to support a male, or something else equally stereotypical)
        • qerolt 9y ago
          I second the Sabriel series. I tend to think Garth Nix is a kind of Neil-Gaiman-starter author. Elements of gothic/horror stuff, but never really too scary for kids (or at least, not for me when I was that age, it tends to depend on the kid in question)
          • thaumasiotes 9y ago
• watwut 9y ago
  Isn't majority of books for them? Anyway, try Asimov if she is closer to 14. 14 is when that stuff is still interesting. Edit: why the fuck would someone downvote this?
  • watwut 9y ago
    I would really like to know what is wrong with Asimov as suggestion for 14 years old kid.
    • hluska 9y ago
      I downvoted you because of the suggestion that "most books" are appropriate for (and interesting to) 8-14 year old girls. That is so untrue as to border on absurdity. And, I also downvoted this comment because asking why you're being downvoted is not only dull, it adds nothing to the conversation.
      • goldenkey 9y ago
        It does add to the conversation because we have a somewhat binary outcome for a binary recommendation. If recommending Asimov is wrong, why? Don't just downvote opinions you disagree with. Explanations are noble.
        • hluska 9y ago
          I don't think recommending Isaac Asimov is wrong. Some people really like his writing (myself included). If you would read my reply again, you'll note that I said, "I downvoted you because of the suggestion that "most books" are appropriate for (and interesting to) 8-14 year old girls." Frankly, I don't think that's controversial enough to have to explain. First, it's flat out wrong to group 8-14 year old girls together. The sheer amount that girls grow between those years makes that highly questionable. The kind of book that the average 8 year old would gain from would be insulting to the average 14 year old. And the kind of book that a 14 year old girl would gain from wouldn't make much sense to the average 8 year old. And yes, there are outliers, but if your child is an outlier, for the love of all that is holy, spend time in bookstores with her and figure out what she's actually interested in. In distributions like this, outliers tend to have very strong interests that overwhelm all the social pressure. If you're dealing with an outlier, figure out those interests and cater to them. Second, let's look at the word "most". Do we have to talk about how most popular fiction geared towards adults may not be appropriate for the average 8 year old? And what about interest? I'm a 40 year old man who reads voraciously yet "most" books are neither appropriate, nor interesting to me. There isn't anything wrong with that. It's just that we all have interests. It's annoying when someone edits a comment to ask why they were downvoted. But, it's flat out dull when they edit a comment and then make an entirely different reply to ask the same thing. That adds absolutely nothing to the conversation.
• DanBC 9y ago
  When looking for books for children I look at the CILIP Carnegie award to find winning and shortlisted books. I then noodle around the other books written by those authors. The award covers a wide range of ages, so some books might be too young. Here's a press release for the 2018 long list: http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/press.php?release=pres_2018_longlists_announced.html http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/press.php?release=pres_2... Here's a list of all Carnegie winners: http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/archive.php?medal=carnegie http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/archive.php?medal=carneg... Here are some Twitter accounts that might be useful: https://twitter.com/FaberChildrens https://twitter.com/FaberChildrens https://twitter.com/PuffinBooks https://twitter.com/PuffinBooks https://twitter.com/WalkerBooksUK https://twitter.com/WalkerBooksUK https://twitter.com/KidsBloomsbury https://twitter.com/KidsBloomsbury https://twitter.com/hodderchildrens https://twitter.com/hodderchildrens
  • DanBC 9y ago
    I guess this list isn't massively useful, so here are some actual books. The Explorer by Katherine Rundell (but anything by this auther, she's written some excellent books) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Explorer-WINNER-COSTA-CHILDRENS-AWARD/dp/1408882191/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Explorer-WINNER-COSTA-CHILDRENS-AWA... The London Eye Mystery by Siobhan Dowd https://www.amazon.co.uk/London-Eye-Mystery-Siobhan-Dowd/dp/0141376554/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/London-Eye-Mystery-Siobhan-Dowd/dp/... and The Guggenheim Mystery by Siobhan Dowd and Robin Stevens https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guggenheim-Mystery-Robin-Stevens/dp/014137702X/ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Guggenheim-Mystery-Robin-Stevens/dp...
• auxbuss 9y ago
  Try Frances Hardinge. The Lie Tree [0] won loads of awards. I'm not in the target age range obviously, but my favourite is Cuckoo Song. Her earlier books are definitely for a younger audience. All Hardinge's books have young female protags. Philip Pullman's, His Dark Materials trilogy [1]. The protag, Lyra, is one of the most interesting young female protags in literature. (This is one of those trilogies that you can reread at different stages of your life and get new things from each time.) Patrick Ness's, Chaos Walking trilogy [2]. (Read the dead tree versions, because the use of typography adds a lot.) Also, checkout Malorie Blackman. You might also want to take a look at the Carnegie Medal longlist [3] (released yesterday) for ideas. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lie_Tree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lie_Tree [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/His_Dark_Materials [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Walking https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_Walking [3] http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/press.php?release=pres_2018_longlists_announced.html http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/press.php?release=pres_2...
  • AnimalMuppet 9y ago
    Note that the His Dark Materials books are a fictionalized advertisement for atheism in the way that C. S. Lewis's Narnia books are for Christianity. If that matters to you, you may want to pick something else.
    • auxbuss 9y ago
      My knee-jerk reaction to this unsupported assertion was to counter it as a myth; however, I was reading Alan Garner's, The Voice That Thunders [0], this afternoon – specifically the essay, The Voice in the Shadow – and my understanding of myth has deepened; so, instead, I will suggest this assertion is a canard – and not in the sense of the lumps of sugar the French dip into their coffee. His Dark Materials (HDM) is a retelling of Paradise Lost [1] – Milton's epic poem of the story of Adam and Eve. Its foundational myth is the keystone of much religion. Pullman is a scholar of Blake, and his grandfather was an Anglican vicar whom he was close to as a result of his father dying when he was young. Pullman knows precisely what he's doing. Where some Christian groups – I will refrain from labelling them as fundamentalists – seem to have backed into their breeches is with Pullman's portrayal of The Magisterium (which some Catholics believe represents themselves), and that in the telling, Pullman kills God. The Catholic church has – to say the least – had a colourful history. Much of it sanguine – in colour, that is. That's undeniable. And if a parent should want to censor their 8-14 year old reader from the harm that HDM might thrust upon them with the behaviour of The Magisterium, then they are going to have a whale of a time "protecting" them from history of the Catholic church. Good luck denying Martin Luther's place in history; let alone the Inquisition. Before I tackle the alleged murder of God, can I point out that the Archbishop of Canterbury loves HDM [2]. This is someone who holds a role first filled by Augustine in 597. (Augustine was quite something. Do read his tale.) If anyone on the planet was going to callout Pullman on atheism, the ArchBofC was the man. Nope. Not only loved it, but recommended it. And yet, in the US, the books were censored [3]. The most telling expurgation is this from the point of view of Father Gomez (of The Magisterium) watching Lyra (the protagonist): "And there it was: the dark-blonde movement that was the girl's hair. He moved a little closer, and took out the rifle. There was a telescopic sight: low-powered, but beautifully made, so that looking through it was to feel your vision clarified as well as enlarged. Yes, there she was, and she paused and looked back so that he saw the expression on her face, and he could not understand how anyone so steeped in evil could look so radiant with hope and happiness." "... he could not understand how anyone so steeped in evil could look so radiant with hope and happiness." For me, in context, this one of the most beautiful parts in the trilogy, but in the US – the Land of the Free, the bastion of free speech – you cannot read it. God, of course, is not murdered in HDM. First, let us see how Pullman describes the place of God in his universe: Balthamos (an angel) said quietly, “The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty — those were all names he gave himself. He was never the creator. He was an angel like ourselves — the first angel, true, the most powerful, but he was formed of Dust as we are, and Dust is only a name for what happens when matter begins to understand itself. Matter loves matter. It seeks to know more about itself, and Dust is formed. The first angels condensed out of Dust, and the Authority was the first of all. He told those who came after him that he had created them, but it was a lie. One of those who came later was wiser than he was, and she found out the truth, so he banished her. We serve her still. And the Authority still reigns in the Kingdom, and Metatron is his Regent.” Pullman uses the idea of sentient matter – he calls Dust – as a core theme of his books. This can be linked to panpsychism, which has a broad history and many proponents both ancient and recent. But the murder of God? The two protagonists, Lyra and Will, simply open the crystal cell that contains the Authority and he/it dissolves with “a sigh of the most profound and exhausted relief.” There's no "fictionalized advertisement for atheism" here, however hard you look. [0] If you are at all interested in storytelling, please read this book: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1602869.The_Voice_That_Thunders https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1602869.The_Voice_That_T... [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradise_Lost [2] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3613962/The-Dark-Materials-debate-life-God-the-universe.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/3613962/The-Dark-Material... [3] https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/118137/what-passages-were-removed-or-changed-from-the-north-american-version-of-his-dar https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/118137/what-passag...
• gaius 9y ago
  finding appropriate books for 8-14 year old girls is really freaking hard. Start with The Hunger Games and if she likes it that’s next year sorted too, buy her a bow.
  • goldenkey 9y ago
    Why not Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter? Less violent and more inspirational.
    • InitialLastName 9y ago
      Also a more realistic setting/plot. "hey, let's suppress rebellion in our outlying provinces by drafting their children and making them fight each other." "wouldn't that cause rebellion?" "Yep"
• book_mentioned 9y ago
  Might find something worth the $15 here (ends in 5 days): https://www.humblebundle.com/books/geek-gals-books https://www.humblebundle.com/books/geek-gals-books
  • book_mentioned 9y ago
    A new barely relevant bundle: https://storybundle.com/ya https://storybundle.com/ya (Hope you see this!)
• kamarg 9y ago
  At the upper end of that age range, the Chronicles of Chaos (https://smile.amazon.com/Orphans-Chaos-Chronicles-John-Wright/dp/0765349957 https://smile.amazon.com/Orphans-Chaos-Chronicles-John-Wrigh...) is an excellent trilogy. One of my favorite parts about the series is that each of the main characters has a very distinct way of looking at the world (logic, spirits, etc) that helps start conversations about understanding other peoples' point of view.