True love at Costco.

Costco book buyer Pennie Clark Ianniciello has chosen Loving Frank: A Novel by Nancy Horan (Ballantine, $23.95, 9780345494993/0345494997) as September's book pick. She has highlighted the title in the current issue of Costco Connection, which goes to many of the warehouse club's members.

Ianniciello wrote that after reading the first novel, "I realized that this was a story I had heard but had long since forgotten. As I read, my recollection of architect Frank Lloyd Wright's relationship with Mamah Borthwick Cheney filled out, and I finally broke down and skipped to the end to remind myself of the lovers' fate. I cannot thank Horan enough for reminding me of, and introducing countless readers to, Cheney--an amazingly strong, smart and determined woman. What makes the story even better is that the love between Cheney and Wright, as described by Horan, seems as dedicated and true as any I've ever read about."

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Denise Brown, sister of Nicole Brown Simpson, is backing out of an appearance on Oprah with some members of the family of Ron Goldman, who was murdered with Simpson, the New York Times reported. The group was planning to be on the show September 13, which is the publication date for If I Did It by O.J. Simpson.

In related news, Beaufort Books, which is publishing If I Did It with the support of the Goldman family, will print 125,000 copies and will likely go back to press before pub date. Beaufort's Eric Kampmann said that company has orders for 116,000 copies.

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"Hogwarts Express hasn't run out of steam," according to the Boston Herald, which featured an update on the retail fate of HP7. A manager at Curious George Goes to Wordsworth bookstore, Cambridge, Mass., said, "People have come in telling me that they weren’t going to read it but see people reading it everywhere they go (and) are now curious for the first time. They want to pick up Deathly Hallows, and I suggest they start with the first one. So you have a whole new set of people just learning about Harry Potter."

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Dealing with English-speaking customers, coups de coeur (store favorites) and the palmarès (bestseller) lists in Montreal.

In an interview with Blaise Renaud, commercial director at Renaud-Bray, Montreal, Que., the Montreal Gazette asked about the company's ordering strategy for the small section of English books. Renaud said, "It's simple: We stock some important works and bestsellers--the types of books where you wouldn't want to read a translation." Renaud-Bray employees are not required to speak English, "but that doesn't mean they don't. I think English customers are understanding. I mean, this is a French bookstore, after all."

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"The world of publishing is changing in very major ways," David Davidar, publisher of Penguin Group (Canada), told Canadian Business magazine. "It isn't the same place that it was 20 years ago. Readers aren't necessarily willing to wait anymore. Increasingly, you have one big hit, people go out and buy the hardcover, and because of deep discounting and used books, readers won't wait for the paperback. [This will make] the model of the classic trade publishing house outdated."

The article combined a profile of Davidar with an exploration of "English-language book publishing in Canada--a place where profit margins are super-tight, multinational publishers are muscling in on an already intensely crowded marketplace and the retail market is dominated by one big bookselling chain."

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Stars and Stripes explored the international proliferation of "Book Towns," beginning with Bredevoort, a "quintessential Dutch village . . . with its cobblestone roads, bikes and brownstone homes bedecked with flowers. . . . Fewer than 2,000 people inhabit this tidy town, but, incredibly, there are roughly 200,000 tomes on the market in Bredevoort's two dozen bookstores."

In early August, another Booktown--Redu, Belgium--held its annual Night of the Book festival, "a time when shops stay open late, streets are packed and fireworks fill the midnight sky."

"It's very pleasant and fun," said Philippe Evrard, a bookshop owner in Redu. "There is music in the streets. Books are not only serious."

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Citing Larry Portzline and his bookstore tourism concept as inspiration, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette offered a "book tourist's guide to some of the stops in Arkansas." Featured booksellers included Sleuths Mystery Bookstore, Little Rock; Nightbird Books, Fayetteville; That Bookstore in Blytheville, Blytheville; Treasure House Books, Harrison; Jefferson Street Books, El Dorado; and Cottage Bookstore of Melbourne, Melbourne.

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In a "companion" piece to its bookstore tourism coverage, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette introduced readers to the bookstore "cats and critters" in the region and declared that "writers tend to like cats. Cats like to sleep on shelves, and in store windows. Some say a bookstore needs a cat almost as much as it needs books."

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Fasten seat belts to follow this:

The Quarto Group, a publicly traded company in the U.K., has bought Motor Books International, the St. Paul, Minn., publisher and distributor, and will be overseen by Ken Fund, president and CEO of Quayside Publishing Group, Beverly, Mass., which Quarto owns. Quayside publishes over 250 books a year in the graphic design, enthusiast and lifestyle categories. Quayside's imprints are Creative Publishing international, Fair Winds Press, Quarry Books, Quiver and Rockport Publishers.

Motor Books, which includes Voyageur Press and Zenith Press, has more than 8,000 book and calendar titles in print and specializes in cars, motorsports, motorcycles, tractors, railroads, racing, travel, nature, military history, aviation, country living and Americana. The company is a distributor for more than 20 publishers and for some publishers, acts as a wholesaler to specialty accounts, particularly the automotive, farm and hobby markets.

Quarto chairman and CEO Laurence F. Orbach said that the purchase of Motor Books is part of "the overall strategy" to make Quayside "the publisher and distributor of choice for books for enthusiasts across all niche categories."