Table of contents for June 2018 in Reader's Digest

BY THE SUMMER OF 2005, the Reverend Richard Joyner of Conetoe Chapel Missionary Baptist Church realized he was conducting funerals twice a month—a startling number given his town’s tiny population. Nearly 300 souls call Conetoe (pronounced “ka-'nee-ta”) home. The predominantly African American hamlet is situated in North Carolina’s Edgecombe County, where a quarter of households live below the poverty line and heart disease kills more 20- to 39-year-olds than do car accidents. “I’ve closed too many coffins on young people,” Joyner, 64, says. The pastor found it difficult to comfort the grieving: “How do you tell someone who’s just lost a child to poor nutrition that this was God’s plan when it was totally preventable? Who would hang out with that God?” Driving home one day and beginning to doubt…

TARA Clayton County, Georgia HOSTESS: Scarlett O’Hara REVIEWS ELIZABETH: On our very first morning, the proprietress, a Miss Scarlett, barged into our room, ripped down the curtains, and said, “I’m going to a party, and I need a dress.” With the sun streaming in through the windows, we didn’t get much sleep after that. DEAN: The next morning, Miss Scarlett ripped the comforter off our bed, yelling, “I’m getting married! I need a wedding dress!” Honestly! I yelled out to her, “What are you going to take tomorrow?!” She shrugged and said, “Tomorrow is another day.” Well, not for us. We packed our bags and found a lovely room over at the Wilkeses’, not far away. HAY, STICK, AND BRICK HOUSES Third Pigsty on the Right HOSTS: The Three Little Pigs REVIEWS…

1 BOOK THE RIGHT ROOM Choose a room on an upper floor and midway down the hall, if you can. That location is your best bet for staying away from noisy areas such as exits, elevators, and vending machines, says Richard Shane, PhD, behavioral sleep specialist for New West Physicians in Colorado. 2 MAKE IT DARK You might also want to ask for a room with blackout shades. “Most hotels have them, but they may be in some rooms and not others,” says Shane. That said, window shades usually can’t close all the way, no matter how hard you try, says Debra Kissen, PhD, MHSA, clinical director of the Light on Anxiety Treatment Center in Chicago. Her advice: “Bring a sleep mask with you in case you need it.” 3…

▸ Visit familyhandyman.com, where you’ll find more easy fixes, home-improvement ideas, and practical advice and tips (updated daily). ▸ Get a subscription to the Family Handyman magazine at familyhandyman.com/save. ▸ Take the free online course “10 Things Every Homeowner Must Know” and others at diyuniversity.com. ▸ Buy the book 100 Things Every Homeowner Must Know, with additional information on these projects and more, at rdstore.com/100things.…

6:00 a.m. STRETCH IN BED Try this even before you open your eyes. Lift one arm and begin by stretching each finger, then your hand, then your wrist, and then your whole arm. Move on to the other arm. Then stretch your toes, feet, ankles, and legs. Finally, end with a neck and back stretch that propels you out of bed. You’ve just limbered up your muscles and joints and enhanced blood flow throughout your body, providing a shot of oxygen to all your tissues. Take up the entire length of the bed when you stretch. According to Harvard University psychologist Amy Cuddy, this “power pose” mimics the position of a bold person, making you feel more confident all day long. OPEN THE BLINDS When natural light from the sunrise…

Kenny Loggins should team up with Kenny Passwords. @JOHNMOE I’ve just reset my password to Delicate Luggage Handler, as I was told it had to be case-sensitive. @JULIANLEECOMEDY My mother’s maiden name is Password. @TYLERLINKIN Glad my car insurance company requires a ten-character password to log in. Wouldn’t want someone to hack in and … pay my insurance bill. @SORTABAD I hate it when I forget my password and can’t answer my secret questions right. It’s like I don’t even know me. @KWIRKYKERRI I needed a password eight characters long, so I picked Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. NICK HELM…

Whom do you trust more: a coworker or your next-door neighbor? It might depend on where you live, how old you are, or your gender. This year’s Reader’s Digest/Ipsos Connect survey reveals a host of fascinating demographic patterns. American adults generally trust their family doctor, but people 55 and older trust him or her far more than those under 35 do (80 percent vs. 68 percent). For women overall, the most trusted people aren’t their doctors but their in-laws. In general, Northeasterners trust more than Southerners do (though the differences aren’t large). Wealthy people are more trusting than people earning less than $25,000, and whites are more trusting than Hispanics or African Americans. No matter their earnings or ethnicity, one group stood out for their confidence: readers of this magazine.…

MY FATHER IS A proud practitioner of “dad jokes,” gags so corny they’re guaranteed to make you groan while he grins with glee. Dad can reel off awful gags with the best of them (“What do you call a man with a rubber toe? Roberto”), but his specialty is something even more maddening. An example: When I was young, I chose a car trip with him to broach a prickly subject. “Dad, yesterday—” Suddenly, my father broke into song: “Yesterdaaaayyyyy, all my troubles seemed so far awayyyyyyy!!!” I continued. “At school, I got in trouble with—” Dad: “Oh, we got trouble, right here in River City! With a capital T that rhymes with P and that stands for po-o-o-o-o-l!!!” “No, Dad, stop—” “In the name of lo-o-o-ve …” For this…

I WISH I HAD TREASURED THE DOING A LITTLE MORE AND THE GETTING IT DONE A LITTLE LESS. ANNA QUINDLEN, writer I’ve been very lucky in my life in terms of people who are able to tolerate me. PATTON OSWALT, comedian You can’t move mountains by whispering at them. PINK, singer It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing because you can only do little. SYDNEY SMITH, English preacher NOTHING IN LIFE IS SO EXHILARATING AS TO BE SHOT AT WITHOUT RESULT. WINSTON CHURCHILL, British prime minister Art isn’t your pet—it’s your kid. It grows up and talks back to you. JOSS WHEDON, screenwriter…

World of Wonder I thought the pictures in your cover story were gorgeous as well as tender, like the newborn baby’s yawn featured in the gallery. By the way, I love the cover, too— perfect orchid color! JOANNE MCPEAK, Buena, New Jersey 25 Ways Sugar Is Making You Sick Here’s another thing to add to your excellent list: Normally, good bacteria in the microflora of the gut flourish and keep bad bacteria under control. Excessive sugar consumption feeds the bad bacteria, destroying the healthy gut balance. This contributes to health problems, including a weakened immune system, diabetes, obesity, and autoimmune diseases, and has been linked to heart disease and cancer. RICHIE LOCASSO, PHD, Hemet, California Librarians Who Rescue Opioid Victims I saw “The Librarian Who Saves Lives” on your cover and was…

“YOU NEED TO GET HERE NOW!” The nurse whispers anxiously over the phone. It’s after midnight. One of our hospice patients has just died at home, and her husband is threatening to shoot himself if the funeral home shows up. “Has the funeral home been called?” I ask. “No,” she says. It was her suggesting such a call that had set him off. “Does he have a gun or weapon?” “We’re in the country. There are deer heads on the wall.” The deer heads are a giveaway. There are probably lots of guns. “Has he threatened to hurt anyone else?” “He says he might take one of the funeral guys with him, but I don’t think he’s serious.” She isn’t sure, though. She is the backup nurse and has never…

We usually wait many years, even decades, before we republish an RD “classic.” But the perspective and power of this story, which originally appeared in the March 2011 issue, are so rare that we opted to share it again sooner. WHILE HIS MEN patrolled the farmland of southern Afghanistan, Sgt. First Class Carlos Santos-Silva came home to his wife, Kristen Santos-Silva, who had bought a new blue sundress embroidered with pink flowers to greet him at the airport. They’d planned to celebrate their 12th wedding anniversary in Washington, DC, during his two weeks of leave from the war zone. They would tour the capital and visit some of Carlos’s men as they recovered from injuries at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. Instead, Kristen wore her new dress to Dover Air…

MY WIFE AND I WERE at a crowded grocery store not long ago. It was a weekday evening, cold and wet—and tense. People were carelessly blocking aisles, grumbling and snarling and cutting one another off with their carts. At one point, two women traded insults for several minutes after colliding in the freezer section. Things got worse at the checkout line. The cashier scanned a man’s discount card, but he misread the WHOM DO WE TRUST MOST? We asked 5,500 Americans: If you lost $100 and it was found by someone from your life on this list, do you trust that he or she would return it to you? Here are the percentages of “yes” votes for each category. savings on her screen as an additional charge. He decided she…

1. serrated ('seh-ray-ted) adj.— A: primed for painting. B: toothed like a saw. C: waterproof. 2. vise (viys) n.—A: clamp that holds an object in place. B: mechanism to lift a car. C: flaw in building materials. 3. adze (adz) n.—A: ax-like tool with a curved blade. B: small rubber mallet. C: piece of scrap wood. 4. flanged (flanjd) adj.—A: sealed with wax. B: with a protruding rim. C: wound tightly. 5. torque (tork) n.—A: twisting force. B: mechanical failure. C: electrical current. 6. auger ('ah-ger) n.—A: master woodworker. B: spiral drill bit. C: sailor’s knife. 7. dowel (dowl) n.—A: toilet plunger. B: peg. C: paint roller. 8. ferrule ('ferr-uhl) n.—A: beveled edge. B: tape measure. C: protective cap. 9. cambered ('kam-berd) adj.—A: encircled. B: arched. C: stained. 10. gauge…

We know we have an audience of readers, so we weren’t surprised that many of you enjoyed “Once Upon a Time Again,” in which Bruce Handy praised rereading children’s books as an adult. When the April issue arrived, I was reading for the first time in 50 years my favorite book from seventh grade. I found The Sherwood Ring by Elizabeth Marie Pope just as intriguing as an adult. JAMES HENDERSON, Gainesville, Georgia After he outgrew my bedtime stories, my 11-year-old liked to read Animorphs books in bed. One night, his four-year-old sister copied him. So I asked her, “Marianne, what’s your book about?” Her answer? “Well, I’d tell you, Dad, but you wouldn’t understand.” KEITH WALTERS, Monroe, New York MAKE US LAUGH! GIFS THAT KEEP ON GIVING You can always find…

41,200,000 AMERICANS ARE FOOD INSECURE. (Meaning they don’t know when or how they’ll get their next meal) 13 MILLION AMERICAN CHILDREN FACE HUNGER—THAT’S 1 IN 6 KIDS. 1.5 million veterans receive food stamps. 27% of households with incomes above the federal poverty level are food insecure. 18.7% of Mississippians are food insecure. (Highest rate of all states) 8.7% of Hawaiians are food insecure. (Lowest rate of all states) 5.4 million senior citizens currently face food insecurity in America. Lack of transportation, functional limitations, and health problems are major factors. $1 donated to Feeding America will buy 10 meals for people facing hunger in America. WANT TO DO SOMETHING? One way to stem the tide of hunger is via neighborhood food banks. They need three things: money, your time, and food.…

I see fear as this little creature that lives in my life all the time, and I can either pay it attention and not get anything done or I can march ahead and ignore it. REESE WITHERSPOON, actor, in Marie Claire IF YOU FEEL like life is passing you by … try throwing yourself into the small things and repeating to yourself: This is where I start. ROB BELL, former pastor, in his book How to Be Here PEOPLE ASK ME if what I know about love has ruined it for me. Not at all. You can know every single ingredient in a chocolate cake but then sit down and eat that cake and feel the joy. HELEN FISHER, biological anthropologist and author of Why We Love, on theguardian.com I LOVE TO SEND a…

A CAT’S SECOND LIFE Our black-and-gray tabby cat had been missing an unusual three days. On the fourth day, I found him half-smashed on the pavement a block from our house. We drove him home in our trunk. We prayed and cried as we said our last goodbye over his backyard grave. The next morning, I awoke and heard a sound at the door. There was our cat, alive and well. I said to my husband, “Honey, either we buried the wrong cat, or we have to rename him Lazarus because he just rose from the dead.” CYNTHIA ASKINS, Houston, Texas SUNRISE MELTS AN OLD SALT On my 24th birthday, I was standing a communications watch on the bridge of the USS George Washington. The captain was feared by the enlisted…

ERIC PUSEY has to bite his tongue when his pharmacy’s customers, thinking their insurance is getting them a good deal, cough up co-payments for generic medications that are far higher than the out-of-pocket costs. Pusey’s contracts with pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs)—the influential companies that administer prescription drug plans on behalf of insurers and large employers—bar him from volunteering details of their deals. In fact, for some generic medicines, co-pays do cost more than if a patient skipped insurance and paid for the drug directly. Pusey can tell people only if they ask—though they often don’t like his reply. “Some of them get fired up,” says Pusey, who owns the Medicap Pharmacy in Olyphant, Pennsylvania. “Some of them don’t believe what we’re telling them is accurate.” The extra money—as little as…

AFTER STUDYING a group of healthy individuals for more than ten years, researchers at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center discovered that those who scored poorly on five simple medical tests were 20 times more likely to develop heart disease than those with good results. The tests are not all standard, so they may not be covered by insurance. But the results will give you a much better—and earlier—sense of your heart disease risk than the traditional reliance on blood pressure and cholesterol levels, and they can help you change your habits as needed to protect your heart for life. If you smoke, are overweight, have a family history of heart problems, or have any other risk factors, ask your doctor about these tests. ▪ ELECTROCARDIOGRAM A standard, 12-lead…

Your home is your castle, but unlike an actual castle, it probably doesn’t come with a staff. Which means that keeping it in good repair is on you. We asked our friends at our sister publication the Family Handyman for a list of projects you can do yourself, even if you’d never call yourself a DIYer. These small tasks won’t take too much time (in some cases, just a few minutes) or cost too much money, and taking care of them now can prevent big headaches—and big bills—down the road. THROUGHOUT THE HOUSE Test Your Thermostat ▸ RISK: If the temperature in your house isn’t what shows on the thermostat, your air conditioner or furnace could be working too hard. ▸ HOW TO DIY IT: Every spring and fall, tape…

What are the most trusted brands in America? Reader’s Digest teamed up with research firm Ipsos Connect to find out. We asked 5,500 Americans which brands they trust the most in 40 categories. Here are the winners. For more on them, go to rd.com/trustedbrands. Always Feminine product Aveeno Body lotion/moisturizer Behr Interior paint Blue Cross Blue Shield Health insurance Carnival Cruise line Centrum Vitamin Claritin Allergy relief Clif Bar Nutrition bar CVS Pharmacy Pharmacy/drugstore Depend Incontinence product Dove Soap/body wash Fidelity Retirement investment service Folgers Coffee Ford Truck/van General Electric Large kitchen appliance Hilton Resort Home Depot Home improvement store Kellogg’s Cold cereal Kraft Salad dressing Listerine Mouthwash Lysol Bathroom cleaner Maytag Washer/dryer MetLife Life insurance Milk-Bone Pet treat NyQuil Cold and flu remedy Olay Antiaging skin care Purina Cat…