In My TBR Stack:

Great American Road Trips: Scenic Drives
from Reader's Digest
Trade Paperback


From the distributor's website:

Let the natural beauty of America’s most scenic drives inspire the travel bug within you and get you exploring the wide-open spaces and breathtaking vistas in our country.

Absorb the best America has to offer from the slow lane! This collection of scenic drives, broken out by region, features breathtaking road trips, both long and short. Highlighted by over 140 gorgeous photos, each trip also includes helpful info to help you plan your trip. Inspirational photos showcase why these well known drives are worth the drive. Many of the drives are described in the first person by people who have made the trip, taken the photos and visited the cool places along the way.

In My TBR Stack:

The Essential Guide to CBD: Everything You Need to Know About What It Helps, Where to Buy, and How to Take It
by Editors of Reader's Digest & Project CBD
Reader's Digest Books
Trade Paperback



From the publisher's website:

The editors of Reader’s Digest have teamed up with the experts at Project CBD to bring you a reliable, easy-to-understand guide to all things CBD. Drawing from peer-reviewed research and medical studies, as well as interviews with neuroscientists and doctors, this book debunks common myths and rebuffs pseudoscience. Divided into three sections, you’ll learn the basics of what CBD is and how it works, how it can be helpful against more than 30 health conditions, and how to pick the type of product that will work best for your needs. Complete with recipes and first-person accounts from real people who have used it, The Essential Guide to CBD tells you everything you need to know about the all-natural treatment that’s sweeping the nation—and why it’s worth the hype. 

On My Radar:

Fearless: A Cartoonist's Guide to Life
by Robb Armstrong
Reader's Digest
Hardcover

From the publisher's website:


Robb Armstrong is one of the lucky ones. One of a handful of African-American artists to have a comic strip nationally syndicated in more than 300 publications, he gets to draw for a living. He works at home, so he can spend more time with his wife and two kids. He travels around the country, teaching drawing and sharing stories about his life with young people. He’s even met his share of famous people, including his idol, Charles Schulz.

But his life wasn’t always so charmed. Born and raised in a rough neighborhood in West Philadelphia, Robb was one of five fatherless kids living in a cramped apartment where the electric bill didn’t always get paid. When he was six, his older brother was killed in a gruesome subway accident. Soon after, his remaining brother was severely beaten by the police for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Then, his mother died of cancer, literally orphaning him. How did he get through all of these tragedies to the happy life? By drawing funnies. Life is not so different from the comics—the challenges, tragedies, and triumphs. Comics poke fun at our everyday routines and our universal motivations. They show us a lot about ourselves and the people around us. So as a cartoonist, Robb Armstrong has drawn a few lessons from life that he shares in this moving memoir. Weaving together his personal stories with simple drawing tutorials and original illustrations, Fearless is both a compelling read and an inspirational lesson on how to live well, through the good times and the bad.

In Stores Now:

The Family Handyman - Complete Do-ItYourself Manual
Reader's Digest
Hardcover

From the book publicity:

The leading manual for home improvements is getting an update to address current codes, latest materials, tools and technology.

The bestselling, most comprehensive guide to home improvements has been revised and updated once again since it's revision in 2005. Over 10 million copies of READER’S DIGEST COMPLETE DO-IT-YOURSELF MANUAL have been sold since it's original publication in 1973. In 2005, the manual got bigger and better than ever, when The Family Handyman and Reader’s Digest joined forces and completely revised, updated, rewrote, and redesigned this home improvement classic. Now in 2014, The Family Handyman has once again updated and revised this do-it-yourself classic to make it relevant to today’s homeowners and DIYers..

Written in a style of text that addresses readers in a very accessible, conversational tone for easy, user-friendly assistance with every do-it-yourself task. All instructions and materials have been updated to address current codes (electrical, plumbing and building), and revised to indicate the very latest in materials, tools, and technology. Suitable for beginners and experts alike, this newly revised edition includes:

• Over 3,000 photos and illustrations to make complex projects and repairs easy to understand
• Twice as many storage projects that help home owners cut clutter
• New building materials that yield great-looking, long-lasting results—and low maintenance!
• New technology that lets homeowners save energy, add convenience or improve security.
• New building codes that make homes safer, more energy-efficient and trouble-free.

The book’s tried-and-true instructions provide do-it-yourself solutions to a ton of problems that could cost a fortune if you had to hire a professional. This manual is a “must-have” reference guide for every home-owning man or woman.

In My TBR Stack:

Alive! Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary People Who Survived Deadly Tornadoes, Avalanches, Shipwrecks and More
Reader's Digest
Hardcover

From the book publicity:

Alive! is a heart-stopping collection of survival stories from the archives of Reader’s Digest’s ‘Drama in Real Life’ series. Readers will be on the edge of their seats as they are drawn into the dramatic tales of everyday people suddenly cast into life or death situations.

Editors have mined the Reader’s Digest archives to bring readers Alive! Extraordinary Stories of Ordinary People Who Survived Deadly Tornadoes, Avalanches, Shipwrecks and More. In “Super Storm,” Rick Gregory, an off-duty patrolman watches an F3 tornado ravage his small Tennessee town where split-second decisions make the difference between life and death. In “Avalanche!” Luke Edgar, a young father and backcountry snowboarder goes out with a buddy for a fun day on Mt. Rainier and gets buried alive in an avalanche. “Swarm,” tells the story of the Walker family, out for a day trip in the Florida marsh when they get entangled in a yellow-jacket nest. The mother, Debbie, fighting anaphylactic shock must leave her injured husband and children in order to find help as time runs out. Adventure writer Tim Cahill recounts how he barely survives the extreme heat of Death Valley despite his experience as an outdoorsman in “Across the Valley of Fire”; and in “Pacific Cyclone,” Tony Farrington tells the harrowing story of the crews of three sailboats who run into an unimaginable storm in the normally calm South Pacific. Whether out on a planned adventure or simply in the wrong place at the wrong time, the heroes of these stories are connected by their fierce desire to survive against all odds. Wildfires, blizzards, attacks by grizzlies, jet crashes in the jungle, are just some of the conditions people face in these stories of survival. Readers will be on the edge of their seats as they follow adventurers and laymen alike as they face down nature’s fury in the most extreme circumstances, and find strength they didn’t know they had, proving the depth and resilience of the human spirit. As Tim Cahill so elegantly puts it, “Then I knew, really knew, that there is a way to get from one extreme to the other, the peaks and valleys. And there is a beauty so fierce only savage emotions like fear and triumph allow us to see it.” 

In My TBR Stack:

Stories in Uniform: A Look at the Heroics, Sacrifices, and Triumphs of Our Soldiers
Reader's Digest
Hardcover

From the publisher website:

Stories in Uniform is a chronological retrospective of the best military pieces Reader's Digest has run; pieces that will make you weep, make your heart sing, inspire you, enrage you, and make you laugh. Beginning in World War I and continuing though to the war in Iraq, readers will follow soldiers into the trenches, peer in on emergency surgery taking place in the depths of the ocean, watch heroes carry the bodies of fallen brethren, trail Eisenhower for the three days leading up to D-Day, and be inspired as men and women rise above and beyond normal human limits to preserve our rights and save their friends. Stories include:

• A moving memorial to D-Day

• A tribute to one of the first African-Americans to serve as a Naval Officer

• A pilot rescued after his F-16 is shot down

• A soldier returns to the front after losing his foot in action

• An American soldier who takes a big risk to save a dying Afghan girl

This book gives a complete perspective on the hell that is war, the love that grows from camaraderie, the pride from accomplishing the impossible, the humor that springs from the military bureaucracy, and more.