You are free to solve them or not, but my question is whether from the prices mentioned in the text you will be able to deduce the year of book's publication.

Here we go:

#79 At the meat market

"That's right, lady. Only 88 cents a pound. This one weighs 3/5 of it's weight plus 3/5 of a pound.
What was the price?

# 53 A Special Occasion

"It's OK with your buddies, but you don't take me to places like that" said Ann. "What did it cost you?"
Mike chuckled. "Come on, you know it was our annual reunion," he replied. "The dinner came to only $99.97 for the lot, so we were able to split it equally among all of us."
What had it cost him then?

Rem. $ dollars are USD. Try to recover the year of publication of the book and justify your answer.