As we have to close the June 15 issue this week, I am slowly sorting through my notes, but here are some of my impressions of this year's BookExpo show at the Javits Center in New York City.

The glitz and glamor and the extravagant excess of past BEAs were notably absent this year; there were fewer parties, fewer big-name celebrities (Mary Jo Buttafuoco promoting her July memoir Getting It Through My Thick Skull from HCI; Miracle on the Hudson hero pilot Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger signing blads of his Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters (Morrow, Dec.), co-authored with Jeffrey Zaslow), and fewer giveaways (I managed to score a cool DK pocket totebag, a Google travel alarm clock, and a bright yellow t-shirt that screamed "FWallStreet" to promote financial blogger Joe Ponzio's FWall Street: Joe Ponzio's No-Nonsense Approach to Value Investing for the Rest of Us (Adams Media).

For Williams' full blog post on BEA, go to our sister publication, Library Journal.

Click here for more BookExpo America 2009 coverage from PW.