A crowd of 20-somethings filled Union Square's D-Lounge last night for the release of Doree Lewak's The Panic Years: A Guide to Surviving Smug Married Friends, Bad Taffeta, and Life on the Wrong Side of 25 Without a Ring, and GalleyCat's Amanda ReCupido was there to observe the scene:

"The book is a counterargument to the gung-ho wedding culture embodied in popular media such as The Bachelor and Say Yes to the Dress. 'Too many young women put pressure on themselves to get married,' Lewak said, describing the project as 'the anti-Sex and the City.'

"'People assume that single women want to be married and are saddened if they are not, but then if they DO want to be married, they are not considered independent,' Lewak continued. 'There are mixed messages for women, and unfortunately, we can't win.'

"So how do the Panic Years creep up? Lewak describes their arrival as the moment 'you stop dating for a fling and start dating for a ring.' Her book, laden with humor and anecdotes from her own experiences and those of a few dozen men and women whom she interviewed (as the panic she describes is an 'equal opportunity condition'), comes with handy tips of where to find PFs, or, 'Potential Fiancés,' and how to get through the holidays 'unmarried and unscathed.'

"Noting the added pressure to marry young in the Jewish community, Lewak marches through her late 20s—'really just a polite way of saying 30,' she quips—as the voice of a generation apprehensive in the face of religious and cultural pressure, and is the charming antidote to any and all badgering friends and relatives. And for the record, she is 'panic-free.'"