We’re partners in caffeine-imbibing with a real coffee shop, the Cafe Monte Alto in Plymouth, New Hampshire. It’s a very cool place on Main Street, across the town green and down the street from Plymouth State University. They grow and sell fair trade coffees from their plantations in Peru, and boy, it’s a great coffee! We’re fortunate that their various roasts are not only outstanding, not only 100% Arabica shade grown, not only reasonably priced, but also available by mail order from their website. I never want to be without Monte Alto’s Dark Roast, so I order it in five-pound bags! We have a link to Monte Alto on our Home page. The owners are not only artistes in coffee roasting, but also love to have artists hang their work on the cafe walls and exhibit on their…

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Something about the hot weather makes people come together. Maybe it’s all the time outdoors or the shedding of all those winter layers. From summer camp crushes to the “long walks on the beach” everyone claims they enjoy, summertime is a season of love. The Rolling Stones knew a thing or two about a “Summer Romance.” So do our members in this month’s issue. Here’s our “summer reading list.” Don’t worry, you won’t be quizzed on it the first week of school. Timothy Boudreau’s short story about unrequited love in mid-life hits hard at just how cruel the heart and its desires can be. If love is a language, perhaps not everyone can speak it. This month’s poetry comes from Chrysa Keenon, a Writing undergraduate student in Indiana. Her poems look at love as if…

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It all started with a little getaway in March. My girlfriend and I had booked a cruise and, in anticipation, I was gathering books to bring along. Those of you who are book nerds can attest to the anxiety of trying to pick out just a few books to take in your luggage. I was weighing my options, no pun intended, when I came across Moby Dick, that hefty tome of classic American literature which had eluded my syllabi in both high school and college. Now as an “adult,” I thought it was time to give it a read. When I told my girlfriend of my choice, she sort of looked at me sideways, then said that’s a bold choice for a vacation read, especially one where we will be spending a week at sea….

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