Since I’m on the topic of money, I might as well spew about something that hits very close to home for me—Gen X and Y debt. It’s the subject of two somewhat “older” books that were well reviewed in LJ: Tamara Draut’s Strapped: Why America’s 20-and 30-Somethings Can’t Get Ahead (Doubleday) and Anya Kamenetz’s Generation Debt: Why Now Is a Terrible Time To Be Young (Riverhead). On one hand, these titles come as a relief because they identify a larger problem (read: I’m not alone, and that’s good to know). On the other, though they do an excellent job of identifying the root causes of my broke-as-a-jokeness (student loans, credit cards, the sky-rocketing cost of living), they were ignored by the media that sends messages to Washington. Back in the spring, I waited in vain for Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert to invite one of the aforementioned authors on their show. The war in Iraq and Dick Cheney’s poor gun etiquette understandably hogged the headlines, but with the unending rise in oil prices, people are increasingly looking at their crap-ass domestic situations. Draut’s and Kamenetz’s books will hit nerves so hard, they’ll bruise readers. Put them out front in your stacks, and watch the circ stats peak higher than regular unleaded.