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Interesting ACX 2024 Book Review Entries

I have finally got around to updating codex cc with all the book reviews from 2024!

Here are some interesting books/reviews that I’ve found that did not make the shortlist.

A Thousand Ways to Please A Husband (1917) (Goodreads, Review)

No, you cannot live on kisses,
Though the honeymoon is sweet,
Harken, brides, a true word this is —
Even lovers have to eat.
This charming vintage cookbook, with its innocently suggestive title, reads like a novel as it follows the fictional lives of a pair of newlyweds. Join Bettina and Bob as they eat their way through their first year of marriage, from the bride’s first real dinner and a Sunday evening tea to baking day, a rainy night meal, and Thanksgiving festivities. Menus for all occasions are seasoned with anecdotes about family life, friendships, household hints, and budgetary concerns.
Originally published in 1917, this volume offers a delightful look at homemaking before the advent of sophisticated appliances and fast food as well as the modern reality of women’s work outside the home. Unintentionally funny and historically revealing, the whimsically illustrated narrative abounds in simple and surprisingly relevant recipes.

Choosing Elites (1985) (Goodreads, Review)

A former special assistant to Harvard’s president analyzes how top universities handle admissions, suggests criteria for evaluating the success of those policies and discusses issues such as the use and misuse of standardized tests and the costs and benefits of affirmative action

Collected Poems by C.P. Cavafy (1934) (Goodreads, Review)

All my homies love Cavafy! I feel like I’m hearing about him a lot in rat-adj circles recently. Unsurprised because his poems are great, kinda surprised bc rats dont generally read poetry.

Don’t Make No Waves…Don’t Back No Losers: An Insiders’ Analysis of the Daley Machine (1975) (Goodreads, Review)

This is simply the best book that has been written about politics in Chicago. In the words of Andrew M. Greeley, “It is a very astute and dispassionate analysis of Chicago political life — far and away the best I have ever seen. Rakove is without illusions about either the right or the left.” Rakove brings to his study an intimate knowledge of Chicago and the Daley machine, a practitioner’s understanding of street-level politics, and a scholar’s background in political theory. Blending anecdote with theory and description in a lively style, Rakove has bridged the gap between scholar and layman in a work that will appeal to both.

Fundamentals of Marxism-Leninism (1960) (Goodreads, Review)

From the jacket of the first edition: “This book provides the most complete and authoritative account yet published of the theory and practice of world Communism. It presents a lucid summary of the fundamental ideas of Marxism, applying and developing them in relation to the present world situation. Its scope is indicated by the five parts into which it is divided – the philosophical foundations of Marxism, the materialist conception of history, the economics of capitalism, the transition from capitalism to socialism, and the problems of building socialism and communism. Written by a group of Soviet authors and edited by well-known ‘Old Bolshevik’ Otto Kuusinen, it was first published in the U.S.S.R. in 1960. The English translation follows exactly the text of the original Russian edition.”

Making the Corps (1997) (Goodreads, Review)

The bestselling, compelling insider’s account of the Marine Corps from the lives of the men of Platoon 3086—their training at Parris Island, their fierce camaraderie, and the unique code of honor that defines them.

The United States Marine Corps, with its proud tradition of excellence in combat, its hallowed rituals, and its unbending code of honor, is part of the fabric of American myth. Making the Corps visits the front lines of boot camp in Parris Island, South Carolina. Here, old values are stripped away and new Marine Corps values are forged. Bestselling author Thomas E. Ricks follows these men from their hometowns, through boot camp, and into their first year as Marines. As three fierce drill instructors fight a battle for the hearts and minds of this unforgettable group of young men, a larger picture emerges, brilliantly painted, of the growing gulf that divides the military from the rest of America.

Metamorphosis (2013) (Goodreads, Review)

Metamorphosis has fan fiction. Metamorphosis has fan art. Metamorphosis has a fan-made 10 page fully-illustrated alternative ending, “I’m Gonna Fix That Girl”, with it’s own 6 digit code, 265918.

But, I think most tellingly, Metamorphosis has cosplay. It’s common these days for fans to dress up as characters from their favorite comics or TV shows. It is rather less common for fans to dress up as characters from their favorite pornographic work.

Metamorphosis is the only hentai I’m aware of with multiple fans cosplaying as the main character.

As implausible as this sounds, I think Metamorphosis is culturally significant. Beyond the explicit illustrations and shocking story content, it captures a deep fear present in the modern world. Stumble off the socially accepted path of high school to college to gainful employment, and it’s easy to be targeted by a predator and/or turn to drugs to try to escape. Metamorphosis may be “a tragic and preachy story”⁴, but the elements of the story are all too real.

Road of the King (2016) (Goodreads, Review)

Computer, generate a book that will teach me how to maximize my chances of winning tournaments for the Yu-Gi-Oh! Trading Card Game. The contents must be written by one of the most prolific players of all time. Disable safety protocols.

Road of The King by Patrick Hoban is a fascinating read that promises to improve your performance in competitive games but at the risk of becoming a villain in the process.

Savage Money: The Anthropology and Politics of Commodity Exchange (1997) (Goodreads, Review)

This volume is not simply another general theory of world system. It is a theoretically and ethnographically informed collection of essays which opens up new questions through an examination of concrete cases, covering global and local questions of political economy.

Ethongraphic studies on various types of white guys my beloved

Review of The Divine Comedy

I’m Italian. I’ve translated for fun about one sixth of the Divine Comedy into English (not my first language, so there might be the kind of weird mistakes second language speakers make).I’ll shamelessly quote my own translation throughout this review. Some of it is in tercets, some of it is in couplets.It’s not online, and very, very few people have seen it, so I might as well have written it specifically for this review.

I just think this is very cool and I liked the rambly nature of the review. Relatedly, the most high-effort book review I’ve found in this contest so far is a 2022 review of Very Important People by Ashley Mears, also available on her Substack. Mears wrote an ethnography of the high-end NYC clubbing scene in the 2010s, the reviewer went clubbing a bunch to figure out what’s changed now that it’s the 2020s.

The Waterloo<>Toronto Facebook Carpool Scene, 2015-2020

I’m trying to write a new post but it seems like every blog drafting client I use is full of old almost finished posts. Here’s one from 2022 or so that I’ve cleaned up. I’m not entirely happy with it; I feel like I didn’t do enough to justify my conclusion that the current status quo is worse, but I also don’t want to work on this post anymore and done might be better than perfect.

I first moved to Waterloo from Toronto in September 2015, for university. For the first term, I used the chartered bus service ran by the undergraduate student union, which was called Fedbus. I think the rates were pretty good, something like $12 for a one way trip and $20 for a round trip. Chartered school buses would pick us up from campus and drop us off at a specific destination. Each destination had its own bus, so it was a direct route. There would typically be one trip offered on Friday evening, and another offered Sunday afternoon.

Taking the public transit option would have been the range of ~$16 one-way, and also an hour and a half longer (3.5 hours, compared to 2 hours), so using Fedbus was a no-brainer.

Over the first winter break, an upperclassman (family friend) clued me in to the carpool network. What this was was a Facebook group that had like 30,000 members¹. On Fridays and weekend days there would be ~30 posts per day, with the majority being Toronto <> Waterloo routes. On weekdays, it would be more like 10 posts a day. Still, definitely enough to catch a ride to the city whenever you wanted, basically.

Good Manners by the numbers

Inspired by the Atlanta ACX group’s list of jargon by the numbers.

One way of demonstrating that you were raised upper-class.
ex. understanding which fork to use first at a high-end restaurant, what white tie attire is, and which shoes to avoid wearing on a boat.
Actively being emotionally aware and considerate, and making sure that those around you feel comfortable and appreciated.
ex. drawing shy people into conversation at a party, providing vegetarian food if you’re throwing a dinner party and you’ve invited vegetarians, being nice to service workers
The ability to follow the implicit social scripts of the current culture.
ex. in speech, appearing interested and not bored in boring conversations and asking appropriate follow-up questions, saying please and thank you at appropriate times

ex. in action, knowing what to wear to church/a graduation ceremony/your white collar workplace, digital conventions such as not double texting and calling instead of texting only for emergencies (millennials and younger only), bringing wine or dessert to a dinner party

ex. being able to competently code-switch to match different cultural contexts.
3, but specifically western scripts from the mid-20th century.
ex. calling older people sir/ma’am, not asking women their age, sending a perfunctory thank you letter for each birthday gift received, avoiding wearing hats indoors
Following sanity preserving norms for living/existing with other people in groups.
ex. cleaning up after yourself, avoiding behaviour that is actively disruptive/unpleasant towards others such as playing music on speakerphone on a bus, staying on the right of escalators if you’re standing still, avoiding being drunk, high, or otherwise impaired in public.
Maintaining a fiction of the non-physical self; minimizing bodily awareness.
ex. going to the bathroom discreetly, hiding the fact that you’re on your period, showering regularly, using deodorant and perfume to mask animal scents, chewing quietly, avoiding burping, farting, and picking your nose in public.