I’m back from the NEIBA trade show with a small cold and almost no voice (I sound like Marge Simpson). I’m also trying to catch up on email from the past few weeks. Once again, I’m off on Thursday for the weekend for the dreaded parent meeting—my parents and Mr. Bookdwarf’s parents meeting for the first time. My stomach is in knots already. This might explain the cold. Meanwhile, there’s loads of interesting stuff around the internets:

• I don’t read the American Scholar, but this article on the many young authors writing in the borough of Brooklyn sounds quite interesting.
  

  To achieve this miracle, certain writers produce Brooklyn Books of Wonder. Take mawkish self-indulgence, add a heavy dollop of creamy nostalgia, season with magic realism, stir in a complacency of faith, and you’ve got wondrousness. The only thing that’s more wondrous than the BBoW narratives themselves is the vanity of the authors who deliver their epistles from Fort Greene with mock-naïve astonishment, as if saying: “I can’t really believe I’m writing this. And it’s such an honor that you’re reading it.” Actually, they’re as vain and mercenary as anyone else, but they mask these less endearing traits under the smiley façade of an illusory Eden they’ve recreated in the low-rise borough across the water from corrupt Manhattan.

• Amazon has announced the first Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award today in cooperation with Penguin. 5000 unpublished authors can submit their English language manuscript, which will be critiqued by the top Amazon reviewers. Then the 100 judged best will be passed over to a panel consisting author Elizabeth Gilbert, agent Eric Simonoff, Penguin imprint founder Amy Einhorn, and NBCC President John Freeman. The winner receives a $25,000 advance and a publishing contract that they must take “as is”. Ed has wisely brought up the ethics of John Freeman’s participation. They criticize bloggers for their code of ethics, yet the NBCC is okay with closely aligning themselves with one large corporate publisher?
  
• Six leading feminists recall the book that changed their lives in the Guardian.
• I hate to say it, but I had never heard of Goodreads until I read about it on Shelf Awareness (second item) this morning. Does anyone else use it or have thoughts about it? They offer other options besides Amazon, but Powell’s isn’t shown immediately—they’re in the other category. It would be nice if they were the second option.
  
• Martha Stewart and Amy Sedaris talk bongwater!