讀雜誌：Reader’s Digest (October/November) 2025

I read the article “ The Nicest Pleases in America” in Reader’s Digest October/November 2025. Ruth gave me the magazine.
A)  (1) Greetings from ASHEVILLE North Carolina 
MOLLY AND MEHERWAN Irani from San Francisco to Asheville, North Carolina. It was 2005, Molly remembers. "People move there to rediscover community, to go back to the land, to make art or music, or just to live in a place surrounded by spectacular scenery while still enjoying world-class cultural offerings. These are just some of the reasons we have named Asheville the Nicest Place in America 2025。”
"It's a unique and amazing place," says Cheryl Antoncic, who visited Asheville from Hartford, Connecticut, to do a little hiking in 2018 and fell enough in love with the place to move there and open a barbecue restaurant.
A city of about 100,000, Asheville sits squarely in the Blue Ridge Mountains at the confluence of the picturesque French Broad and Swannanoa rivers. Depending on where you are in town, you might catch a glimpse of Elk Mountain or Bearwallow Mountain-and for that matter, you might catch a glimpse of a real black bear wallowing in your backyard.
"I just love it," says Denice Chesler, a retired microbiologist who moved to Asheville from Maryland in 2019 。
"It's just a beautiful place and a safe environment as far as not having to worry about people's prejudices," says Chesler. 
"Literally something exists for everybody in Asheville," says Antoncic. "You can take an art class, dance, wood- working, gardening- whatever you want."
"Folks have a really impressive array of skills here," says Emily Peele, who came to Asheville from Virginia in 2010. "People are capable and knowledgeable and handy. They know how to grow their own food, build their own bridges and homes and chicken coops. That type of stuff made me decide, OK, I'm going to put down forever roots here."
The second is commitment to community. That's what struck Sophie Hull when she was considering moving to Asheville from Philadelphia in 2015. "The way people treat each other is just kind of unique. There's a lot of support. People look out for each other. It just feels real down here."She took the plunge and now can't imagine living anywhere else.

(2) Greetings from Peru Amateur Circus in Peru, Indiana 
The Clownery Starts on the sidewalk, even before you enter the big top. Crowds who show up to see the Peru Amateur Circus in Peru, Indiana, know as American’s circus city, are greeted by merrymakers with silly jokes and swirly rainbow suckers. The smell of buttery popcorn fills the air; roaring trumpets fill the ears. Flossy cotton candy melts on the tongue. The circus is about to begin! 
One of the delighted spectators is Debra Jo Myers, who nominated the circus as one of the Nicest Places in America.
Since 1960, crop after crop of Peru-area young people have taken their turn in the ring, often returning to help make the Peru Amateur Circus a bit better than it was the year before.
"So many things have evolved," says Myers, "and it's all happened strictly through the efforts of volunteers and people who wanted it sustained."
"The circus is what makes us who we are," says Myers. "We wouldn't be on the map without it."

(3) Greetings from MONROE Louisiana 
Sometimes you have to leave a place to find out how nice it is.That’s what happened to Lindsey Braddock of Monroe, Louisiana. 
As a child, she loved to run wild in Monroe's quiet green streets. As a teen, she chafed at its small-town ways. As a mother, she and her husband, Brett Braddock, learned to love the place all over again.
And when they lost their son. Tarver, in a tragic fire in 2024. they found out how much the place loved them.
It was only after he died that the family learned how many times Tarver had bought a classmate lunch or a snack. When a football teammate needed a pair of boots, Tarver gave him his.
In their son's memory, the family launched the Tarver Braddock Foundation to sponsor spreading "love, laughter and happiness through random acts of kindness." Almost all its funds come from the people in and around Monroe-donations as small as $5. The money goes right back to Twin City residents as small grants, gifts and scholarships.
One of those scholarships-a $5,000 check-went to Anthony Washington, a hardworking high school senior on his way to college. His mother, Rachel Washington, a pastor and Monroe native, called the surprise gift "a blessing" that reflects the best of the Twin Cities.
"The thing about Monroe is, we understand how to help each other out," Rachel says. "We've had bad things happen, but we've had good things happen here too. I've worked for the city.”
Through the Tarver Braddock Foundation, they have raised and given away more than $100,000. They've paid bills for needy neighbors, sponsored worthy causes and handed out dozens of scholarships. The one that went to Anthony Washington "came completely out of nowhere," says his grateful mom. The $5,000 scholarship will help her son, a tuba player, study music at Grambling State University, home of the legendary Tiger Marching Band.
"It shows us that somebody cares about us," she says. "It means the world."
And if the Braddocks still hurt, they also know that Tarver would be proud of what they do. 

(4) LESLIE SHOGREN wanted to go to Semicolon Books in Chicago to celebrate her birthday, so she packed up her husband and four sons and came in from the suburbs. When she checked out that day in July 2020, she asked the woman at the register if she was Danielle Moore, the bookstore's owner.
"Yeah, are you Leslie?" Moore replied, flashing her signature bright smile. She slipped Shogren a birthday card signed by each staff member, thanking her for celebrating her birthday at the store.
It's important to Moore that customers consider the store a "third space"-not home or work, but someplace that "still feels like a place for belonging."That's something Moore didn't have growing up, when she lived with her mother in a domestic violence shelter in Florida. A Danielle Steel novel was the only book there.
"I know what it's like not to have books," she says.
Moore welcomes classes into the store, and students pick out what they want for free. So far, through its #ClearTheShelves program, Semicolon has given 13,000 books to Chicago Public Schools students. 
Fittingly, the bestselling book at Semicolon is All About Love by bell hooks.
"That is absolutely our ethos," Moore says. "We live by it. We believe in moving in love and community above all."

(5) IN OCTOBER 2024, Western North Carolina lay battered and sodden from the howling winds and relentless rain of Hurricane Helene. Meanwhile, 500 miles north, in Medina, Ohio, a group of guardian angels started planning a surprise.
Rather than shipping supplies down, the plan was to ship people up for a special event called the Promise of Christmas. A fleet of buses would collect 200 Carolinians, some of whom had lost everything, and bring them to Medina, a small city some 30 miles south of Cleveland, for a weekend of holiday magic.
The Promise of Christmas, as they called it, went like this: A Friday night welcome dinner where everyone-child or adult-received $250 in a red envelope. On Saturday, tours of Castle Noel, where guests could lose themselves in the holiday spirit.
The grateful visitors boarded the buses home on Sunday morning without having spent a cent. But Medina's real gift wasn't monetary-it was a renewal of faith.
"When we got back to the real world, we were refreshed and ready to keep fighting," says James Scarborough, a displaced Newtown, North Carolina, resident. “We're almost ready planning to go back."

B) I think:
This magazine holds an annual event to elect the best place to live in the United States. These are the five places selected this year. There are mainly two reasons why residents like their place of residence: one is cultural, such as cultural and recreational activities; The other one is about social relations, mutual unity and cooperation.
I saw a video online introducing a Chinese Mr. Wang who had studied and worked in the United States for 42 years. Just three days after returning to China, he made up his mind to stay in China. Because he loves playing the Jinghu, China has the Jinghu he is familiar with, and this is due to cultural reasons.
I have lived in China for 77 years and been in the United States for 10 years. I don't want to go back to China. Because I have tense relationships with some Chinese classmates and colleagues, while my American friends treat me very well. This is due to social relations.