Health Tips Line

I consider myself a small-talk connoisseur. We moved a lot when I was a kid, so I had to get good at connecting with strangers quickly or else no one would have shown up to my birthday parties. Now, as an adult, I’m always down to discuss road construction, light news and even the weather (honestly, there’s so much to say about it these days!). Of course, there are times when small talk gets stuck in the “How are you? I’m fine. How are you?” death spiral, but I’d argue that’s just small talk done badly. Not everyone agrees with me—in fact, some people are even calling for the end of small talk, saying that it can be impersonal, a waste of time and even rude. So I decided to spend a whole day skipping small talk and just opening with whatever deep conversation topic was on my mind. Here’s how it went: To a friend at the gym: “Hey, how are the testosterone injections going? What’s your sperm count at now?” To a cashi...

People never agree on anything these days, but they sure seem to agree on Dolly Parton , who died last week at the age of 80. And why wouldn’t they? She spent her life bringing music, joy and kindness to a world that doesn’t always give back in return. Tributes are coming in from all over the world, from King Charles, who had the royal guard play “9 to 5” outside Buckingham Palace, to the University of Tennessee football team, who will celebrate Dolly on their helmets during the 2026 season. Plans are even underway to rename the Nashville airport in her honor. And now, there’s news that we might be getting a Dolly Parton Day on Sept. 25. That day will mark the one-month anniversary of the icon’s death , and we can’t think of a more appropriate day to celebrate. If you’re scratching your head at the significance, keep reading as we explore why this might actually happen. Get  Reader’s Digest ’s  Read Up newsletter for...

Ever wonder why reading gets harder as you get older? If you’re anything like us, finding your next great read, especially right after finishing a book you completely adored, is exhausting. Sure, you can always pick up a random new release and hope for the best. But let’s be honest—that strategy often ends with a $30 novel you’ll never crack open. That’s where a book subscription box comes to the rescue! Instead of agonizing over vague back-cover summaries and hunting down non-spoiler reviews, book club members hand over the reins to someone else to pick their next page-turner. This adds a delightful element of surprise to a TBR (to-be-read) pile, but it can also backfire hard if you get stuck with a dud. That’s why we love Book of the Month (BOTM), which offers a fun, non-traditional twist on the classic book subscription box model. Not only do readers get to choose their own reads from a short list of buzzy new releases each month, but they also ge...

Some celebrities have fans. Keanu Reeves has what feels like the entire internet rooting for him. Maybe it’s the action-hero cool, the endlessly quotable movies or the fact that, after decades of fame, he still comes across as someone you’d genuinely want to grab a coffee with. Whatever the reason, our collective love for Keanu runs deep—and with his birthday on Sept. 2, there’s no better time to revisit some of the best Keanu Reeves quotes . Reeves got his start acting in the 1980s before winning over audiences in Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure and, eventually, becoming the blockbuster star behind movies like Speed , The Matrix and John Wick . To celebrate his big day, we’ve rounded up our favorite quotes from his most popular films and best interviews. Some will make you laugh, some will inspire you and a few will probably make you want to plan a Keanu movie marathon immediately. (We support this decision.) Read on for the best Keanu ...

Gas prices are high right now, but end-of-summer travel must go on. At least, that’s what your kids, friends and the hospitality industry hope to hear. It might be rougher than usual: Prices are up across the board for fuel, hotels and airfare, according to AAA (and your powers of simple observation). But let’s focus on driving, because that’s why you’re here, right? Labor Day travel is a great way to ease into fall before the school year really gets going—if you can swing it. Last year, the average national price for a gallon of gas was $3.19, and this year, it’s $4.10 as of this writing. Hotel prices are up 9%, so short road trips might rule the day. Are you headed out on the road this weekend? Even with higher prices, Chase Travel reports that domestic bookings are up 17%. If you’ve scrimped and saved for one last hurrah, the only thing left to worry about is the traffic. Well, AAA and INRIX teamed up to map out the best and worst times to d...

The U.S. Open is underway in New York, and once again I’m reminded that I should have practiced harder when I was a junior. But bygones! Let’s talk tennis balls. Specifically, the ones that come sealed in pop-top cans. If you didn’t know, not all of them do. “There are two types of tennis ball: pressureless and pressurized,” says Rod Cross, a retired physics professor and an expert on the technology of tennis. (The name of one of his books is The Physics and Technology of Tennis .) It’s the pressurized ones that come in cans, and coming up, he’ll explain why. But wait … footballs are pressurized, which just means that the air pressure inside the ball is higher than outside. So are basketballs. And volleyballs. And tons of other sports balls. But hardly any of them are sold in cans. To further the tennis-ball conundrum : “In the old days, when I was young, even pressurized balls were sold in cardboard boxes, [not cans],” Cross...

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 ...