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Marlon James is one of those rare authors who can do just about anything. Over the course of his career, the Jamaican novelist has taken readers from a remote village in 1950s Jamaica with John Crow’s Devil to a brutal sugar plantation during slavery in The Book of Night Women to the turbulent world surrounding the attempted assassination of Bob Marley in his Man Booker Prize–winning masterpiece, A Brief History of Seven Killings . He even co-hosts the literary podcast Marlon and Jake Read Dead People , and reinvented epic fantasy with his Dark Star trilogy. In other words: Trying to predict what James will do next is usually a losing game. His latest novel, The Disappearers , may be his most ambitious yet—and the acclaim has already been extraordinary, with the New York Times recently calling it “the novel of the decade, if not the century.” The sweeping epic follows the lives of eight gay men in Jamaica throughout the 1980s and ’90s, as they ...

Forget arguing about politics . A real high-stakes debate in American homes is about wearing shoes indoors. And there are some big differences by state. From Seattle to Arizona to Utah, people all have their own unique ways of treating the shoes-in-the-house question. One even involves checking for baby scorpions with a blacklight. (Looking at you, Phoenix.) But Minnesota has the strictest policy I’ve personally encountered: Everyone takes off their shoes inside a home—every time, always. It was so well enforced that I became acutely aware of always wearing clean, non-holey socks because I knew people were going to see them. Now I live in Colorado, where people wear hiking shoes to weddings (to be fair, a lot of weddings here are in the mountains) and Tevas are considered an extension of your feet. Almost no one takes off their shoes inside a house unless they’re very wet or muddy. But perhaps the biggest debate is in my own home. My husband and I have been bickering a...

Queen Elizabeth II lived to the age of 96, and Prince Philip lived to 99, so it’s likely that 77-year-old King Charles III will be king for a good, long while. Still, Charles’s reign did not begin until he was 74, making him the longest-waiting heir and the oldest heir to become monarch, so his reign will not be a long one. Charles’s son, Prince William, will eventually ascend the throne, and that one tiny shift is of great importance: It will cause a dramatic cascading effect when it comes to his kids’ titles, and beyond. “When a new monarch succeeds to the throne, the other members of the royal family move up in the line of succession ,” says royal historian Carolyn Harris, PhD, author of Raising Royalty: 1,000 Years of Royal Parenting . But the royals’ new titles might not be as straightforward as you think. Plus, there might be a few historic firsts in store for Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis. Read on to find out how Wil...

If you’ve watched enough tennis, you probably think you have a pretty good handle on the rules. Keep the ball in play, don’t touch the net and make your opponent question every life choice that led them to that baseline. Simple enough, right? Well, there’s one U.S. Open rule that might make even longtime fans do a double take. With the 2026 U.S. Open currently underway in New York until Sept. 13, we’re taking a closer look at one of the sport’s most surprising rules, and the players who have actually taken advantage of it. Yes, it’s completely legal. Yes, it can happen in a Grand Slam match. And yes, you may have been watching tennis for years without realizing it. So which stars have pulled off this head-turning move? We’re looking at some of the biggest names on the 2026 U.S. Open courts, including Carlos Alcaraz, Alexander Zverev and Novak Djokovic, so you’ll know exactly who to watch for. And Serena Williams fans , you may recognize t...

Show almost anyone in the world a red, yellow and green light , and they’ll instantly associate the colorful trio with a traffic signal. But add another color to the mix, and many will be left in the dark—or, let’s be honest, totally and completely confused—about what it’s supposed to mean. That’s exactly what’s happening in some parts of the United States: Drivers have spotted the addition of a bright blue light mounted near traffic signals. Yes, blue. But what is its purpose, and does it change how you should approach the intersection? Because remember: Just because you don’t know a traffic rule, it doesn’t mean you can’t get a ticket for it! To get us all up to speed on this new rule of the road , Reader’s Digest spoke with David A. Noyce, executive associate dean of the College of Engineering and the Arthur F. Hawnn Professor of Transportation Engineering at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Read on to find ...