Innholdsfortegnelse for June 2024 i Reader's Digest

THE FIRE RACED through Lahaina last August so fast that it killed 100 people and destroyed more than 2,200 buildings, most of them homes. It left more than 7,000 people without their possessions and in need of shelter. That afternoon, Kalyn Lepre, a 36-year-old nutritional therapist, grabbed her wallet and her grand-mother's pearls and drove out of town. She lost everything else in her four-bedroom house: clothes, documents, jewelry, GoPro gear, a computer and seven surfboards. Lepre surfed almost every day; surfing was a source of joy and a means to maintain her mental health. Seeing her surfboards reduced to a pile of fibers—especially her prized baby blue Doug Haut custom long-board—was devastating. “I was so in love with that board,” she says. Jud Lau understood. The 53-year-old Maui native…

FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL THERE COMES time for every family when the tables turn and the parent has to answer to the child. Mine came recently when my wife and I stayed with our elder son in Los Angeles—our first visit in several years and the longest since he moved west in 2014. A whole week under his roof! “Dad, don't leave the water running when you brush your teeth,” Nathaniel admonished on our first night. Ditto when I washed my hands. All right, I figured, this is California, where drought is a concern. But I also got busted for pulling extra paper towels to wipe the kitchen counter and was instructed to use the dishcloth, which didn't seem sanitary. More edicts followed. Not to leave my clunky walking…

While the tech industry is always hyping the next hot gadget, the reality is that you already own a lot of awesome gear. And you can certainly do much more with all the devices you already own. Here's how to use them to live a better life today—no purchase necessary! Find Emojis on Your Computer Smiley faces and party poppers aren't just for text messages on your phone. You can use emojis in many programs on your Mac or PC, too, with an emoji keyboard just a quick keyboard short-cut away. On a Windows PC, press the Windows key and the period key at the same time. On a Mac, press command, control and the space bar at the same time to reveal the emojis. Get Your Smart Speaker Talking…

Jestine Wikenson thought his investment was secure. His house in Palm Beach County, Florida, was almost paid off. His family was happy. He liked his neighbors. His homeowners association (HOA)—a privately managed housing development—worked well. The fees were manageable, and he didn't mind its voluminous rules. In short, he felt at home. Then one day he looked in the mailbox and found out that his HOA was about to sell his house over a debt of $1,335. “We have a home that's worth almost a million dollars. We've never paid our mortgage one day late,” Wikenson says. “I never imagined that they would do that to someone who was willing to pay.” Wikenson had missed a quarterly dues payment in 2021 and forgotten all about it. Apparently, so had the…

The Picasso fell off the proverbial truck. It vanished from a loading dock at Logan International Airport in Boston and wound up where it didn't belong, in the modest home of one Merrill Rummel, also known as Bill. In fairness, this forklift operator had no idea that the crate he tossed into his car trunk contained a Picasso until he opened its casing. In fairness, he didn't care much for it; he preferred realism. But now things had turned all too real. FBI agents were hot on the trail of a hot Picasso unavailable for public viewing, as it was hidden in Rummel's hallway closet. He and his fiancee, Sam, began to panic. “How do we get rid of it?” she recalls thinking. “We couldn't just give it back. It…

The Joy Luck Club author is as enchanting as ever in this collection of journals kept since she began bird-watching in 2016. Amy Tan's notes and drawings of her avian visitors sharpen as the book and her skills ripen. Getting lost in Tan's world of chirpy factoids (birds eat grit from the ground to aid digestion, not because they're starving; store-bought humming-bird nectar is just water, sugar, red dye and a total waste of money) is easy. Reckoning with the knowledge that her unvarnished musings are richer and more poetic than your most polished premeditation is slightly tougher. —CF…

That milestone—the 400th volume of our condensed books series (first dubbed Condensed Books, then Select Editions and now Fiction Favorites)—means more than 2,000 novels have been read and presented by our editors in just shy of three-quarters of a century, with notable titles including East of Eden by John Steinbeck and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Volume 400 has Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly, The Mystery Guest by Nita Prose, Change of Plans by Dylan Newton and The Second Stranger by Martin Griffin. To order, go to FictionFavorites.com/400. “I found your article about inventor Ellen Xu's prototype app that helps identify the signs of Kawasaki disease (February 2024) quite interesting. My son contracted it when he was 3 months old, although it took a lengthy hospital stay and…

Under Milkweed For years, Robyn Elman has raised endangered monarch butterflies in her New York City backyard by collecting their eggs from milkweed plants—the only food monarchs eat—alongside highways. But too often, instead of healthy plants, she found mowed stubs and obliterated eggs. She and a fellow enthusiast contacted Frank Coniglio, the city's director of arterial highway maintenance, urging him to cut the butterflies a break. Over and over again. “At first, I was skeptical,” he told the New York Times. But then he got it: “What happens to the butterflies is going to happen to us, right?” So Coniglio went to work on not mowing. By the end of last summer, about 20 milk-weed patches were protected through-out the city. “We're doing something positive,” says Coniglio proudly. To Grandma's…

In his handmade birthday card for his grandmother, our grandson, 10, wrote: “I know birthdays get worse as you get older. But on the bright side, not many left now!” —LARRY HENTGES Jefferson City, MO I was lying on a float in the pool when my 3-year-old grandson climbed on top of me and had a close-up view of the hairs in my nostrils. “Grandma,” he shouted, “you have spiderwebs in your nose!” —NANCY TOMLIN Madison Heights, VA Here's the joke I told my grandson: “What do you call a dinosaur that knows a lot of words?” The correct answer is “thesaurus.” His answer: “You.” —SHARILYNN LA MAY Eustis, FL…

No one has ever suggested that learning English was easy. And that goes for the best and brightest students, some of whom take my English as a second language course. I realized this was the case when one young woman expressed her gratitude for the class by saying to me, “I thank you from the heart of my bottom.” -YEFIM M. BRODD Kirkland, WA Sign spotted outside a local auto body shop: “The next time we meet will be by accident.” -STEVE BERSTLER West Chester, PA If you work from home and miss going to the office, just drive around for 2 hours to waste time and keep your home temp at 61 degrees so you always need a sweater. —X@ADAM_KARPIAK Ever wanted to call your co-worker a name? Here are…

I got sloppy with my shaving one morning and nicked my skin. I stanched the bleeding and ran off to school where I was a substitute teacher. As it was Veterans Day, I let my first graders know that I, too, was a veteran. As I was talking, a student pointed to my face and said, “Your ear is bleeding.” As I wiped off the blood, his classmate whispered solemnly, “Remember, he was in the war.” —ALAN WHITTEMORE Orlando, FL The Navy has a language you won't see in civilian life. Case in point, this sign in a latrine at Brooklyn's Floyd Bennett Field: “All Hands Must Wash Hands Before Leaving the Head!” -ROBERT MCAULEY East Atlantic Beach, NY Before we embarked on a few days of survival training at…

THESE DAYS, IF YOU DON'T STREAM, it feels an awful lot as if you're swimming against the stream. When friends buzz about a must-watch show on streaming, you're left out of the conversation. Or, suddenly, big games are increasingly difficult to locate on familiar channels (or have entirely disappeared). This January, NBCUniversal aired an NFL playoff game exclusively on streaming for the first time in history. In most of the United States (other than the two home cities), if you wanted to watch the Kansas City Chiefs duke it out with the Miami Dolphins in the AFC wild-card game, you forked over the $5.99 Peacock monthly subscription fee. (Peacock doesn't offer a free trial, and neither does Netflix, Max or Disney+, while Hulu, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, Paramount+ and…

A Match Lit in Heaven Mitch loves cigars, and I love the smell and buying them for him. Every time he smoked one, he'd take the cigar band off and place it on my finger. On our one-year anniversary, we took a motorcycle ride to a boisterous Irish pub. He lit up a cigar, and as usual, I put out my hand. He placed the band on my ring finger and asked me to marry him. Once I realized he meant it, I quickly said yes. He asked if I wanted a special ring, and I said yes, but something unfussy that I could wear 24/7. The romantic in him surprised me once again: He designed matching rings shaped like cigar bands with our initials entwined. —SHANNON MESENBURG Port Charlotte,…

Weight is something that I've thought about every single day of my adult life,” says Jennifer Blackburn*, a 49-year-old public relations professional in Toronto. Following decades of trying different diets and medications—and nding little success—in fall 2022 she started taking Ozempic, the diabetes drug that has become synonymous with celebrity weight loss. “It has been life-changing,” she says. U.S. health-care providers wrote more than 9.million prescriptions for Ozempic and similar drugs during the last few months of 2022, around the time Blackburn received her script. Some 890.million adults have obesity worldwide, and weight-loss drug sales are forecast to grow to as much as $100.billion by the end of the decade. No wonder obesity medications are a hot topic. But there's still mass confusion around who should take them, whether the…

A modern-day odyssey from a master of contemporary fiction, Godwin journeys from Pittsburgh to England to France to Benin in search of the titular teenage African soccer prodigy. The story is told from the seemingly disparate perspectives of Mark Wolfe, a technical writer asked by his dodgy sports agent brother to help find the Messi-like youth from a viral video, and Lakesha Williams, Wolfe's colleague who must recover his declining professionalism. The book asks many questions, but none more perplexing than how these storylines relate. All are gratifyingly answered as Joseph O'Neill finds the back of the net once more. —Caroline Fanning…

The goal is not to have an incredible career. The goal is to have an incredible life. —Ali Wong, COMEDIAN, IN THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER It's the perfect degree of fame … I'm a famous writer in a country where nobody reads. —John Grisham, AUTHOR, IN TIME I don't pray for results. I just ask that I get the strength to give it my all. —Coco Gauff, TENNIS PLAYERS, AT THE 2023 U.S. OPEN Old age is a privilege that is denied to a lot of people. I used to think 36 was really old. Then, as soon as I got cancer, I was like, 36 is really young. —Hannah Fry, MATHEMATICIAN, IN THE GUARDIAN My mouth is faster than my brain. All my life, strange things like that have come out, like the phrase…

1. pseudo adj. ('soo-doh) A holy B phony C highbrow 2. gnu n. (noo) A horned frog B African antelope C flightless bird 3. codger n. ('kah-jr) A elderly oddball B handheld radio C boardinghouse 4. limn v. (lim) A beat up B branch out C outline 5. apropos adj. (a-pruh-'poh) A estimated B suitable C stolen 6. wrack v. (rak) A ruin B sob C stretch 7. coxswain n. ('cahk-sn) A tail feather B head sailor C antique pistol 8. aesthetic adj. (uhs-'theh-tik) A severe B numb C attractive 9. knell n. (nel) A bell's clang B fierce wind C grassy hill 10. rapport n. (ruh-'por) A repetitive sound B French cheese C friendly relationship 11. chthonic adj. ('thah-nik) A of the underworld B on-and-off C bitter-tasting 12. aplomb n. (uh-'plahm) A shock B poise C haste 13. evanesce v. (eh-vuh-'nes) A debate endlessly B divide in half C disappear like vapor 14. mitzvah n. ('mits-vuh) A charitable deed B 13th birthday C ancient curse 15. viscount n. ('vigh-kownt) A arched bridge B…

You know to leave out the s sound in Louisville, along with that c in Tucson. But depending on where you live, you might be flubbing these other locales with silent letters: Mackinac ('ma-kuh-naw) Island, Michigan; Natchitoches ('na-kuh-tuhsh), Louisiana; Schley (sly), North Carolina; and Worcester ('wu-str), Massachusetts. Word Power ANSWERS 1. pseudo (B) phony “Instead of listening to pseudo health experts on Instagram, why don't you ask your doctor?” 2. gnu (B) African antelope Gnus have boxy faces and big horns. 3. codger (A) elderly oddball Milton is a cranky codger who thinks smartphones are just a fad. 4. limn (C) outline In Renaissance paintings, golden halos limn the heads of saints. 5. apropos (B) suitable Nora's somber black outfit was more apropos for a funeral than a wedding. 6. wrack (A) ruin Wracked by wildfires…

Take a Trip Down Memory Lane When celebrating this magazine's 100th anniversary a couple of years ago, we editors had a blast poring over our rich archives and reminiscing over our favorite stories. We think you'll enjoy it too, so we put together The Best of Reader's Digest Timeless Favorites, a “greatest hits album” of sorts for America's favorite magazine. Inside are incredible tales of survival, sweet stories about animal companions, and slices of life from decades past. Order your copy for just $10 at rd.com/RDJUN.…

THERE'S AN OLD pay phone in Washington, D.C., where, if you press a button, you can hear a gag like this: “How does the polygamist hippie count his wives? 'One Mrs. Hippie, two Mrs. Hippie …'” The voice belongs to Don Rutledge, a teacher and the creator of the Jokes Phone. Because he thought it would be fun, Rutledge, who lives nearby, bought the phone online, replaced its guts with a computer and placed it on the street. Press *1 (it's free!) to hear a knock-knock joke or *2 for a kids joke. Pressing *5 plays fun facts. You can also press 0# to chat with “a random guy who thinks he has all the answers.” That guy is Rutledge, who told Washingtonian that callers often are “freaked out that…

TANTALIZINGLY TANGY AND sweet, Korean barbecue is hot off the grill—and a hot ticket item at food courts and food trucks alike. The beguilingly tender slivers of beef are typically topped with a sprinkling of scallions and served with rice. You can find it at grill-topped tables at “K-town” restaurants in cities big and small across the country and also in some less traditional preparations, such as folded into quesadillas, tucked into tacos or loaded onto cheese fries. Even beginners can make it at home with jarred marinades such as the We Love You brand of bulgogi sauces or one of the pre-marinated meal kits. Bulgogi is among the latest foodie favorites, but this elemental combo of meat and flame (its name literally translates to “fire meat”) got its start…

♦ Humility is a fine trait for everyone but politicians. Last November, Damion Green ran for a seat on the Rainier, Washington, city council, but nixed voting for himself. Doing so, he told KING 5, a local TV news station, felt “narcissistic.” Instead, he didn't vote. His opponent Ryan Roth felt similarly. The difference was that Roth's wife demanded he go vote for himself. So he did. And now he's on the city council after winning the race 247 votes to Green's 246. ♦ In 2010, Maryland commemorated the War of 1812 on its license plates with the website of a nonprofit set up to educate people about the war. Recently, a curious Marylander typed the URL, starspangled200.org, into his phone. What popped up was “not at all what I…

IMAGINE FINDING OUT that chocolate cake is the ideal health food. OK, that's not true. But it is true that something you might only associate with vacations, leisure time and sheer fun is one of the best exercises around. We're talking about swimming and other aquatic exercises. Working out while all or partially submerged in water has multiple benefits for both the mind and the body and can be done by almost anyone of any age at any fitness level. A 30-year observational study at the University of South Carolina found that swimmers had about half the risk of death from any cause over the course of the study compared to participants who were runners, walkers or sedentary. Swimming is the fourth-most-popular sports activity in the United States. And you…

A dad will guard the thermostat, and none shall be permitted to adjust it. If a family member states that they are cold, a dad will respond, “Hi, Cold, I'm Dad.” Upon receiving a bill at a restaurant, a dad will say, “You got this one?” while passing the bill to a child. Upon running into a fellow dad, a dad must greet him with one of the following: ♦“Look at this guy!” ♦“Who let this guy in here?” ♦“I guess they're just letting anyone in here now.” When speaking to an individual who had a haircut, a dad is required by Dad Law to comment: “Looks like you got your ears lowered.” If a dad is picking up a passenger, as the passenger approaches he's required to scoot the…

Kevin Kwan returns with more of the bombastic storytelling readers loved in his Crazy Rich Asians. This time, the protagonist is Rufus Leung Gresham, son of a British duke and a Hong Kong supermodel, and constant sidestepper of his mother's millionaire matchmaking schemes. Gresham's suitresses include a French hotel heiress, an alluring Chinese billionaire and the literal girl-next-door from childhood as he faces mounting pressure to marry rich and save the family fortune. Bursting with equal parts heart and haute couture, Lies and Weddings slips into a sandy beach bag just as easily as into a Gucci tote. —Leandra Beabout…