PW Daily’s Charlotte Abbott reports that the latest selection of Oprah’s Book Club is MIDDLESEX by Jeffrey Eugenides. Word that this novel would be Oprah’s next pick trickled out last weekend, as hundreds of booksellers gathered at Book Expo America. Many received their shipments of the $15 paperback last month, and were warned by Picador not to open their cartons until after today’s official announcement on today’s show, which also features Cormac McCarthy‘s first television appearance.

Ron notes that we’re getting better at figuring Oprah out; remember our mid-May speculation?

“So that takes us back to the $15 Picador paperbacks, among which we’ve got Trance (strong possibilities), I Am Charlotte Simmons (heaven help us), Middlesex (left-field, but these days that’d be par for Oprah’s course), The Red Tent (actually $14.95, but perfect for the original book club), and The Corrections (I’m just saying!).”

No wonder they started getting panicky in Chicago when one of those authors took himself out of the running… That isn’t to say we can’t improve; even with the answer staring him in the face, Ron still believed it was going to be Marilynne Robinson‘s Gilead.

AP’s Hillel Italie picked up on the story that Alan Greenspan, who will be Book Expo America‘s keynote speaker this year, will be interviewed by NBC newscaster Andrea Mitchell, who also happens to be his wife. And some people, like Politics & Prose co-owner Barbara Meade, are taking issue. “I think it would be pretty awkward for a wife to interview her husband,” she said. Not so, says BEA’s special events director Roger Billheimer. “Sure, she’s his wife, but she’s a smart lady and she’s been around the block. I certainly think this is an opportunity for a stimulating conversation.”

And let’s be honest here: anyone going to BEA expecting anything but softball, overly positives directed at any keystone speaker’s way – not just the former Federal Reserve Director – is in for a rude awakening. Besides, if Mitchell can get her husband off-script even once, that would be the “major coup” Billheimer touts in the PA piece…

Book Expo America has announced in a press release sent earlier today that former Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan will appear as the conference’s Keynote Speaker on Friday, June 1 at 11am. He will be joined by Andrea Mitchell, Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for NBC News (and Greenspan’s wife), who will interview Dr. Greenspan in a Q & A format. The appearance will, no doubt, help hype Greenspan’s much-buzzed-about (mostly for the gargantuan advance) book THE AGE OF TURBULENCE: ADVENTURES IN A NEW WORLD, which Penguin Press will publish on September 17.

“We are enormously honored that Dr. Greenspan has agreed to appear at BEA,” notes BEA director Lance Fensterman. “Dr. Greenspan is one of the leading figures of the latter half of the 20th Century and his insight, leadership, and impact has affected citizens in the United States and the world at large. We couldn’t be more proud to have this opportunity to host such an accomplished and respected individual and to have his name associated with BEA and our conference program.” But what GalleyCat wants to know is whether the Q&A format will bring out Greenspan’s much-satirized speech format… Meanwhile, Ron has a dollar says the name “Ayn Rand” doesn’t come up once during the entire “interview,” and even money on his saxophone prowess being mentioned.

Book Expo America, which will take place in New York between May 31 and Jun 2, has revamped its website, which went live late last week and is now fully operational. In a press release that went out yesterday, organizers highlight some of the site’s new features, including a new look, easier navigation, a blog from Show Director Lance Fensterman, “headlines from industry leading trade publications” (but so far, GalleyCat has been excluded), and My BEA, an online social networking platform that offers attendees, exhibitors, speakers and press an opportunity to create a personalized show experience.

“Our goal in creating BEA’s new web presence is so that we may serve as a more effective year-round tool in building relationships,” notes Fensterman. “My vision for BEA on the web is to create a platform that extends the reach and relevance of BookExpo America well beyond 3 days in June. Added features such as social networking, dedicated web pages to key attendee groups, and an ever expanding podcasting program are examples or our commitment to serve our industry in new and evolving ways.”

More content, in the form of a dedicated website tailored specifically to BEAs Chinese visitors and an interactive posting board called “BEA STORY” is on the way.