In this era of information overload, Reader’s Digest offers something unique: the very best advice, information and inspiration from multiple sources, condensed into an easy-to-read digest. In each issue you’ll get trusted, time-saving insights about Health, Personal Finance, Work, Family, and National issues, PLUS exclusive book excerpts, news-making interviews, and humor.
Oh, Memories!
LETTERS • Notes on the November issue
Life Is a Highway
Send Us Your Pet Pals!
The Trumpet Is His Weapon • Alarmed by a tragic shooting in his hometown, a New Orleans musician gives hope to kids—for a song
Cavemen (and -women) to the Rescue
LIFE • IN THESE United States
THE NOT-SO-GRAND CANYON • America’s national parks are treasures to behold. Or at least most of us think so. Here are one-star Yelp reviews from tourists who beg to differ.
QUOTABLE QUOTES
YOUR TRUE STORIES in 100 Words*
Papa Bear’s Good-Night
Pucker Up! Facts About Kissing
WE FOUND A FIX • 9 TRICKS TO Improve Your Life*
ALL in a Day’s WORK
PET PEEVES
THE PUTT FOR A CAR Challenge
I Am Tea... A Symbol of Health and Revolution
THE SWEETEST HOME REMEDY FOR COUGHS
Fine-Tune Your Metabolism • Adjusting over time will help you stay thinner-and healthier
LAUGHTER • The best Medicine
SWEET NOTHINGS
Lost and Found, an Ocean Away
Do You Know a Place This Nice?
How to Keep Your HEART YOUNG • Exercise and proper diet are a good start. But these cardiologist-approved tips offer surprisingly helpful additions to any routine.
I THINK BLACK HISTORY MONTH SHOULD LAST ALL YEAR • We know about Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King Jr., of course. But our American history lessons skip over so many other African American achievers.
A Valentine’s Day LESSON • As a child, I had a humiliating experience on February 14. Now that I’m a teacher, my students celebrate the day with love.
HOW THEY CAUGHT THEIR STALKER • An elusive hacker humiliated high school girls from a small New Hampshire town. Then they teamed up with a determined detective to set a digital trap.
She Finally Said YES! • A lovesick teenager gets the girl—40 years later
CAN YOU TRUST YOUR DENTIST? • While most of the professionals who care for our teeth are reputable and honest, dentistry is less science-based and regulated than other fields. Some patients pay the price.
YOU CALL THAT A COMPLIMENT? • A LITTLE PRAISE IS ALWAYS NICE—EXCEPT WHEN IT IS A TAD TOO HONEST
THE TRUTH ABOUT MEMORY • Your brain doesn’t work like a tape recorder. Sometimes that’s a good thing.
3 Reasons to Celebrate Your Faulty Memory
BRAIN GAMES
WORD POWER • We’re throwing you a curveball this month with a vocabulary roundup of a circular nature. Can you roll with the roundhouses, or are you out of the loop? Give this quiz a whirl, and then take a spin to page 122 for answers.
A Very Round Number • As a symbol it can be a circle or an oval but the word zero comes from the Latin zephirum and the Arabic sifr (“empty”). For a term that means, well, nothing, it has a lot of synonyms: cipher (also from sifr), zilch, naught, and nil, to name a few. Some sports have their own terms: 1860s baseball gave us the goose egg, and in tennis its love, probably from the idea of playing for nothing but “the love of the game.”
BRAIN GAMES ANSWERS
The Genius Section
PHOTO FINISH • YOUR Funniest CAPTIONS