For the red on your list

Paul D'Amato

I'M GOING to recommend something that's both politically insightful and entertaining--so difficult to find because something political that tries to be entertaining is usually too shallow and something entertaining that tries to be political is usually too didactic.

I'll start with the new book written by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá, Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality. Sprawling and somewhat disorganized, this is nevertheless a very funny, and yet very serious, look at the origins of human sexuality, which takes aim at what the authors call the "Flintstonization" of the past that posits sexual monogamy and the nuclear family as "the fundamental condition of the human species."

As the authors write in the introduction, "We'll explain how seismic cultural shifts that began about ten thousands years ago rendered the true story of human sexuality so subversive and threatening that for centuries it has been silenced by religious authorities, pathologized by physicians, studiously ignored by scientists, and covered up by moralizing therapists."

The authors argue that our basic sexual proclivities developed during the period prior to the rise of agriculture, when human beings lived in relatively small, fiercely egalitarian foraging bands.

I'm also giving a heads up to AMC for batting a perfect 1.000 on their television shows. For those who like Mad Men (three seasons), take the time to catch the other shows in AMC's lineup: Breaking Bad (three seasons), about a high school chemistry teacher dying of cancer who decides the only way not to leave his family in financial ruin is to turn toward making and selling meth; Rubicon (one season), the savvy, Three Days of the Condor-like thriller about a dissatisfied employee who uncovers strange conspiracies at the government spy agency he works for; and finally, The Walking Dead (just finished its first season), a show adapted from a zombie cartoon series about a band of living trying to survive a world overtaken by the living dead. Alert: definitely not for the squeamish.

Leela Yellesetty

EVER SINCE his memorable description of Goldman Sachs as a "vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity," I've been eagerly following Matt Taibbi's reporting in Rolling Stone.

His new book Griftopia: Bubble Machines, Vampire Squids and the Long Con That Is Breaking America is a perfect holiday read for fans and new initiates alike. With characteristic caustic wit, Taibbi unpacks the complexities of high finance to reveal the criminals laughing all the way to the bank. Despite how much the content will make your blood boil, you'll find yourself rolling with laughter too.

For those still suffering withdrawal from The Wire, the new show by creator David Simon is not to be missed--season one of Treme is available for pre-order and hopefully soon to be released (the soundtrack is out now). As both a searing indictment of government neglect and a paean to the rich, multifaceted culture of New Orleans, the show makes a great companion piece to Jordan Flaherty's excellent new book Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six.

No radical's holiday playlist would be complete this season without Wake Up! a collection of 1960s and '70s protest song covers featuring John Legend and the Roots (the latter's new album How I Got Over is also a must-have). Unfortunately, they lent one of the songs to the soundtrack of Waiting for "Superman", which shamelessly packages corporate school "reform" as a new civil rights movement.

Nonetheless, the songs condemning war, racism and poverty lose none of their resonance in these times. Introducing a new generation to Bill Wither's haunting antiwar ballad "I Can't Write Left-Handed" alone is enough to win me over.

Alexander Billet

THIS PAST year has seen a bevy of veterans really take the music world by surprise.

There's Massive Attack's Heligoland, praised by many as their best effort since 1998's Mezzanine. Paul Weller, formerly of the Jam and the Style Council, released Wake Up the Nation this past April. Full of some of his trademark vim and vitriol, it's become one of the year's most acclaimed releases in the UK. Even Devo released their first album in 20 years, and it's gone on to be called their absolute best!

Then there's Distant Relatives, the collaboration between Nas and Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley. Plenty of rappers have paid homage to reggae by taking it back to the source, but few have used the hybrid to elevate the struggles in the projects of Queens, ghettos of Trenchtown and slums of South Africa as one.

On that same global tip, the Knitting Factory has reissued the entire catalog of the late great Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti, whose music over the past several years has experienced something of a renaissance.

But hey, CDs are expensive, and iTunes isn't much better. If you're one of the countless gift-giving music freaks who find themselves on the wrong end of the employment totem pole lately, then the world of free downloading is something of a godsend.

Celebrating the 10th anniversary of their iconic Let's Get Free, dead prez released their Revolutionary But Gangsta Grillz this past June on their Web site for the tidy sum of nothing. Same with up-and-comers of the Chicago hip-hop scene BBU, whose Fear of a Clear Channel Planet is finding its way onto plenty "Best of 2010" lists, including mine.

Of course, there's always the option of just making a mix CD with any combination of these artists on it. With a little help from YouTube and Vidtomp3.com, anything is possible...not that I endorse music piracy (wink-wink-nudge-nudge).

Eric Ruder

HOLIDAY PICKS need to be fun. So here are mine.

First off, you may have seen publicity for the new Showtime series Shameless, starring William H. Macy, but you may not know that it's a remake of a wildly successful British series by the same name set in Manchester, England. The British Shameless is now in its eighth season, and seasons 1 through 7 are available on DVD. The hilarious and heartbreaking stories of life in a Manchester housing project are so much fun--and then there's the succulent Mancunian accent!

Next on my list are two selections from the wonderful genre pioneered by the late great Howard Zinn: A People's History of American Empire by Howard Zinn, Mike Konopacki and Paul Buhle and Celebrate People's History! The Poster Book of Resistance and Revolution edited by Josh MacPhee.

The first is a history of U.S. imperialism told in the form of a graphic novel that begins with the conquest of the Native Americans and carries all the way through the U.S. war in Vietnam, Reagan's covert war in Central America and the Iran-Contra scandal. The second is a collection of beautiful posters from around the world that are like a graphic time capsule of international rebellion.

Finally, pardon my shameless (get it?) promotion of a book by one of our very own SocialistWorker.org columnists: Bad Sports: How Owners Are Ruining the Games We Love by Dave Zirin. In this age of budget deficits and austerity measures, it's worth getting outraged at the way America's sports barons have used public money to build stadiums so they could turn around and charge us obscene sums for tickets to our favorite teams.