While we loved fiction in 2010, it’s the year’s non-fiction books that gave us a chance to really spread out and move from drunken adventures across Europe on justification as to why we didn’t continue our studies in Russian literature on an academic level.

1. And The Pursuit of Happiness by Maira Kalman

It may have not been the most inspiring year for America, but Ms. Kalman’s book of drawings made us want to revisit everything that is truly great about this country.  One of the most beautiful books to come out in a long time.

2. Everything Is Going to Be Great: An Underfunded and Overexposed European Grand Tour by Rachel Shukert

I think we may have gotten a little ahead of ourselves when we said this was the funniest book of the year, considering it had just come out.

Thank goodness for end of year lists where we can look back and say we were right.

3. The Possessed by Elif Batuman

If you ever thought you wanted to study Russian writers like Isaac Babel or Tolstoy for a living, read this amazing book first.

4. How did you get This Number by Sloane Crosley

2010 might not be remembered as the year that Sloane Crosley bucked the “sophomore slump” label, but it really should be.  Nearly as funny as I was Told There’d Be Cake, and much more confident.

5. Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution by Sara Marcus

Of all of the revolutions to bubble up out of the musical underground in the 1990s, the Riot Grrrl movement was the one whose voice was the loudest, and who had the biggest and arguably most important impact.  Sara Marcus spared no detail in this account, and it deserves your attention.

6. When They Come for Us, We’ll Be Gone by Gal Beckerman

A work that was enjoyable to read, and of the utmost importance.  The world owes Mr. Beckerman a thanks for making this amazing book happen.

7. I Don’t Care About Your Band: What I Learned from Indie Rockers, Trust Funders, Pornographers, Felons, Faux-Sensitive Hipsters, and Other Guys I’ve Dated by Julie Klausner

Since the Sex and the City and the creepy culture it seems to have created is slowly going the way of the dinosaur, we vote for Julie Klausner’s book to become the new handbook to teach people exactly how bloody the dating battlefield of New York has become.

8. And the Heart Says Whatever by Emily Gould

We hereby enact a law stating that no longer should Emily Gould be known as the ex-Gawker writer who had the cover story in the New York Times Magazine.  She shall now be recognized as the clever memoirist who knows that nobody is innocent–including herself–and it’s all thanks to this superb memoir.

9. Running the Books: The Adventures of an Accidental Prison Librarian by Avi Steinberg

We like anybody who works in a prison library for two years.  If they can write a memoir as good as this one about it, we like them even more.

10. Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) with Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes by Stephen Sondheim

I don’t feel like we really need to give any reasons for why this is on the list.

Also of note: Listen to This by Alex Ross, The Road by Vasily Grossman, Half Empty by David Rakoff,

The post Jewcy’s Top 10 Non-Fiction Books Of 2010 appeared first on Jewcy.

It’s interesting now to look back at the various movements that came into being, or saw their influence grow, as part of the 90s punk underground.  Those of us who experienced it firsthand may have our own mental histories and recollections, but it seems the time is ripe for re-visitation.   I’d argue that the 1990s weren’t the years that punk broke; instead, they were the years that punk took the money and then ran off, never to be seen again. Bands like Nirvana and Green Day were selling records faster than they could make new ones.  In their wake, they left dozens of imitators who wanted the same fame and fortune, fakers that felt no qualms about bastardizing their own histories to reach ridiculous financial goals.  Meanwhile, the ‘true’ punk underground grew–militant vegan Straight Edge kids emerged, as did the rallying cries of “no records with bar codes”– into what we know to be American hardcore.  Many punks in the 90s incorporated politics as much as they did guitar and drums.  But of all those punks, none had an impact quite like the ones Sara Marcus covers in Girls to the Front.  Riot Grrrls. Punk, even at its inception, was always thought to be half democracy and half anarchy.  The adage that “anybody can do it” meant that for the first time, women were being openly accepted into the fold.  In the 70s, bands like The Raincoats, The Slits, Au Pairs, and a handful more flourished.  But if you take a closer look at the numbers, women in punk were always a minority, their voices taking a backseat to the guys they hung around.  Riot Grrrl challenged that system, making way for not just women, but more acceptance of LGBT musicians and fans.  What sets Marcus’ book apart from those that have attempted to chronicle scenes (Please Kill Me, We’ve got the Neutron Bomb, Dance of Days) is Marcus’ reluctance to rely on power quotes from scene luminaries that create a mystique around the movement’s history.  Instead, we’re given a lovingly detailed, and heavily researched account of Riot Grrrl.  There aren’t favorites, or attempts to make legends (my biggest complaint with Legs McNeil’s handling of the New York punk scene in Please Kill Me) and Marcus doesn’t depend on anecdotes to fill pages.  Nor does she take part in iconoclasm.  Instead, Marcus plays the part of writer and historian; smartly juxtaposing this scene–that could be called small in number, but not in impact–with the events that shaped the decade that Riot Grrrl lived and died in.

Girls to the Front is without a doubt, the definitive history of Riot Grrrl.  The book avoids pitfalls that normally plague other chronicles of music scenes, doesn’t come off sounding like a dry, academic paper, and stays interesting throughout the entire book. While most contemporary musicians have shed their political consciousness for higher ratings on Pitchfork, this should function as a parable for generations to come.

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