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Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town
Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town | Cory Doctorow
7 posts | 8 read | 2 to read
Alan is a middle-aged entrepeneur in contemporary Toronto, who has devoted himself to fixing up a house in a bohemian neighborhood. This naturally brings him in contact with the house full of students and layabouts next door, including a young woman who, in a moment of stress, reveals to him that she has wings--wings, moreover, which grow back after each attempt to cut them off. Alan understands. He himself has a secret or two. His father is a mountain; his mother is a washing machine; and among his brothers are a set of Russian nesting dolls. Now two of the three nesting dolls, Edward and Frederick, are on his doorstep--well on their way to starvation, because their innermost member, George, has vanished. It appears that yet another brother, Davey, who Alan and his other siblings killed years ago, may have returned...bent on revenge. Under such circumstances it seems only reasonable for Alan to involve himself with a visionary scheme to blanket Toronto with free wireless Internet connectivity, a conspiracy spearheaded by a brilliant technopunk who builds miracles of hardware from parts scavenged from the city's dumpsters. But Alan's past won't leave him alone--and Davey is only one of the powers gunning for him and all his friends. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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review
iread2much
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Mehso-so

This is one of the strangest books I‘ve ever read. It‘s like a surreal book had a baby with a dimestore novel with cyberpunk grandparents.
The main character is the child of a washing machine and a mountain and he has strange brothers. He tries to be a good man, and he tries to make peoples lives better until his family starts to pull him back into death and chaos.
1.5/5, I couldn‘t stop reading it, but I wish I hadn‘t read it.

Leftcoastzen Such a beauty!🐶 1y
dabbe Love the puppy! Want to kiss the face! ❣️🐾❣️ 1y
iread2much @dabbe thank you he‘s a special boy 1y
23 likes4 comments
blurb
RamsFan1963
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📚 Tagged, The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert, The Sundown Motel by Simone St. James, Shades of Grey by Jasper Fforde, Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel
✒ Robert Silverberg, John Scalzi
📺 Star Trek (TOS)
📽 Something Wicked This Way Comes, Silverado, The Secret of My Success
🎙 Steely Dan, Simon & Garfunkel, Squeeze, Split Enz
🎶 Superman's Song/Crash Test Dummies, The Sound of Silence/Simon & Garfunkel

RamsFan1963 Self Esteem/The Offspring, Some Like It Hot/The Power Station, Sometimes Love Just Ain't Enough/Patty Smyth & Don Henley 1y
Bklover There was a Robert Silverberg book that I read years ago and loved it! Still have it on my shelves but can‘t remember the name. 1y
Bklover Just googled. Easier than looking for it. Lord Valentine‘s Castle. All I remember is there were jugglers! 1y
41 likes4 comments
blurb
catsuit_mango
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A weird book so far. Probably not the most aligned with an art deco hotel room by the sea... Oh well ;)

7 likes1 stack add
review
Squidapus
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Pickpick

Squidapus thought this book was pretty good. It's like there are two different books side by side in this, one about a man dealing with his magic/weird family and life and one about a startup anarchic Wifi Router business. The author has really strong feelings about Telecom. What hurts the book is that the ending SUUUUUCCCKKKEEEDDD. A reveal happens that nobody reacts to, he gets a relationship he didn't earn and an entire plot just didn't matter.

TobeyTheScavengerMonk This one felt more like a repository of the authors (admittedly interesting) ideas than it did a coherent story. 5y
Squidapus @TobeyTheScavengerMonk Squidapus agrees. There were a number of sections that just weren't contiguous with anything else 5y
16 likes2 comments
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Squidapus
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Squidapus has found a nice balance of reading a new book and then a backlog book to keep things fresh and not to leave so many books unread while grabbing more. He's had this one a while and a story where the MCs dad is a mountain and Mom is a washing machine sounds like lighter fair. Then again, he thought that about Space Unicorn Blues and that shit was heavy yo.

12 likes1 stack add
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Sarz
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1. I really enjoyed Avengers: Infinity War, Black Panther and Deadpool.
2. Mini-golf
3. 73, but it's more my favourite number rather than my lucky number
4. I don't do it often so I had to think quite a while back.

@jesshowbooks #friyayintro

Guildedearlobe I moved in next to a mini golf place two years ago yet still can‘t entice people to go play with me. What‘s wrong with people? 6y
24 likes1 comment
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phenobarbiidoll

Tried to read this on several occasions and failed every time. I think perhaps it's just too far out there, even for my eclectic tastes.