Mail from our readers
Summer Stock
I just had to write to congratulate you on your excellent summer
double issue (June 28-July 5). which I consider to be your best yet.
It was actually refreshing-the perfect restorative for an
oppressively hot summer day. The issue reminded your readers that
the world around them is full of hidden treasures that are just
waiting to be discovered.
Claude Mercure
Hearst, Ont.
The special summer issue was an excellent idea. However, as I
flipped through the Books section, I wondered why Nkiru Books in
Brooklyn, Black Books Plus in Manhattan, Hue-Man Experience Books in
Denver, and Aquarian Books in Los Angeles were not mentioned among
your favorites, as they are just a few of several hundred
African-American bookstores. They carry an inventory that could not
possibly be touched upon in any of the ''mainstream'' bookstores that
you profiled. And they, too, are favorites of well-known authors.
Ivy V. Pittman
Montclair, N.J.
Loved your summer issue! But I couldn't believe the Red Rocks
Amphitheatre in Colorado wasn't mentioned under favorite performance
places. An outdoor concert right next to the Rockies, in a theater
carved out of huge red rocks — a ''natural'' concert setting.
Donna Davis
Editor, Oz Rock magazine
Chicago
While engrossed in the June 28 issue, I came upon Al Anderson on
Toad's Place in New Haven, Conn. Thank you for introducing me to a
great spot for some great music.
Susan Hutcherson
Hartford
I could not help noticing in your section on summer reads the
absence of any novels by John D. MacDonald. The Danielle Steel types
write pathetic cartoons of the kind of great pulp fiction of which
MacDonald was a master. Of his many novels, one at least seems to
qualify as a perfect summer read: The Last One Left, a wonderfully
complicated murder mystery with fully developed characters and a
truly frightening killer.
Charles Andrews
Kent, Ohio
Never have I been more disappointed in any magazine. Were your
writers so brain-dead that they all took their vacations at the same
time?
Margaret E. Viverito
Kissimmee, Fla.
No News & Notes. No box office top 10 chart. No letters. No music
charts saying who's selling the most albums. Nothing! What a bomb.
And now you expect me to wait two more weeks to find out how the
summer flicks are doing? I'm afraid I won't be renewing, folks. I can
get the same information somewhere else. Today.
Chad Ridgely
Washington, D.C
I was very disappointed in your summer double issue. I am not
interested in what Ozzy Osbourne is doing this summer, nor do I
plan to drive to Chicago to see a movie. You publish 50 quality (A+)
issues each year; why spoil your success with a substandard (D)
double issue on ''Hot Spots,'' according to your celebrity guest
writers?
Jim Overholtzer
East Norriton, Pa.
