More Money Please: The Financial Secrets You Never Learned in School

Gamm, founder of HelpSaveMyDollars.com, offers an energetic, encouraging financial guide. Hailing from an otherwise happy family torn apart by money woes, Gamm was determined not to let finances destroy his life. As a student at N.Y.U.’s Stern School of Business, he noted that no one he knew had had any personal finance education. He launched HelpSaveMyDollars.com to help his compatriots achieve financial health. This book, then, is the Personal Finance 101 version, covering the basics of budgeting, banking, credit and credit cards, debt, paying for college, job hunting, and planning for retirement, among other topics. Gamm’s muscular writing style is perfect for his audience of students and recent graduates; he combines a tough-love attitude with confirmations that it’s not their fault that they’ve had so little financial education and that the country is still slowly recovering from a long recession. “Our generation,” he says caustically, “is getting screwed in a lot of ways.” This slick, get-it-done guide will be highly useful for bewildered grown-ups-to-be. Agent: Jesseca Salky, Hannigan Salky Getzler Agency. (Apr.)